The president of Zentoshin, a credit card settlement agent that went bankrupt with 115.1 billion yen in liabilities, died last month at a hospital where he was a patient, the bankruptcy trustee said, a death that removes the central figure from efforts to explain suspected window dressing.
He died on October 6. The cause was illness, the trustee said, Yomiuri TV reported.
Zentoshin earned fee income by advancing merchants their sales proceeds and paying card companies up front. In July 2026, the Osaka District Court decided to open bankruptcy proceedings against the company.
Suspected window dressing
The company is suspected of having falsified its financial statements for at least 20 years.
The trustee said the bankruptcy proceedings themselves will not be affected. The death does affect the investigation, the trustee said, because the president can no longer be questioned about how the window dressing worked.