Man Gets 10-Year Term in Car Fraud

The first Japanese citizen ever extradited from Japan to the United States to face a criminal prosecution was sentenced to a 10-year prison term in a Los Angeles federal court after being convicted of shipping stolen Rolls Royce and Mercedes-Benz automobiles to Japan for sale to Japanese buyers.

U.S. District Judge Mariana R. Pfaelzer imposed the sentence, one of the heaviest federal sentences for a white-collar crime ever handed down locally, on Koichi Ishihara, 43, of Osaka, Japan, who was found guilty last month of leasing more than 90 luxury cars in the United States and immediately shipping them to Japan, where they were sold at double their cost.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Anita Dymant said the stolen cars, including 40 Mercedes-Benz and nine Rolls Royce automobiles, were worth about $4 million in the United States, but at least twice that much on the Japanese car market.

Ishihara emigrated from Japan in 1977 and operated an import-export business in Century City, Dymant said. She said he fled the United States in 1981 when his fraudulent car leasing scheme was uncovered, and he was extradited from Japan a year ago to face federal prosecution.