A man in Japan gambled away an enormous COVID-19 relief payment that was meant for a town. Now the town is forcing him to pay it back.
Sho Taguchi, 24, was mistakenly sent a payment of 46.3 million yen, or $357,000, in April that was meant to be used by the town of Abu for COVID-19 relief, according to local media. Taguchi received the funding and then used it to gamble on online casino websites, police revealed on Thursday after arresting the man on suspicion of computer fraud.
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“I feel very sorry that I used it up,” Taguchi said, according to his lawyer.
There were 463 households in Abu eligible for stimulus payment. On April 8, an official from the town accidentally sent Taguchi the entire lump sum, rather than his individual payment, according to Japanese media. Once officials realized what they had done, they approached Taguchi to get the money back.
Taguchi met with the town’s mayor to discuss returning the funding but did not do so, revealing he had spent the stimulus on gambling.
Taguchi planned to “atone for the sin,” Abu Mayor Norihiko Hanada said in a Thursday YouTube address, adding that he intends to pay it all back. However, Taguchi’s lawyer was uncertain if this was reasonable.
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Officials eventually sent replacement COVID-19 stimulus payments to the affected households, according to the New York Times.
“The arrest will help us to get closer to knowing the truth,” Hanada said. “His testimony will give us a stepping stone to retrieving the money.”
