Japanese prosecutors have charged 24 year-old Sho Taguchi with fraud after Taguchi was accidentally wired the entire 46.3 million yen COVID stimulus payout (about $360,000 USD) meant for he and 462 of his neighbors in the rural town of Abu, population 2,952, which Taguchi then proceeded to piss away gambling in online casinos after promising the mayor he wouldn’t, the New York Times reports. The saga began in April when Abu’s mayor, Norihiko Hanada, sent a list of 463 local eligible recipients of the relief funds and watched as some asshole proceeded to wire all of the disbursement to Taguchi, whose name was at the top of the list (We’re guessing “Sho Taguchi” would be something like the equivalent of “Aaron Aaronson” in a Japanese phonebook).
Hanada then paid Taguchi a visit and drove him to a bank branch to unfuck the problem, but Taguchi refused to go inside until he spoke with a lawyer, promising Hanada he would send the money within the next few days. Then the neon claws of Gamblor gripped Taguchi.
Not hard to imagine he kept doubling down, thinking he could be a hero by scoring a jackpot and winning a larger payout for his neighbors. Taguchi was arrested Wednesday after informing authorities the 46.3 million yen was gone. Now Abu’s taxpayers are on the hook for the cash, which has already been paid out to the other relief recipients out of the town’s budget, something prosecutors say is all on Hanada for trusting a jackass like Taguchi. “The town’s approach was not strict enough, and it allowed the case to develop to this point,” said Osaka prosecutor Masaki Kamei. “Maybe their approach was based on a view of human nature as fundamentally good,” which sounds like a polite way of saying “I work my ass off 60 hours a week putting hardened criminals behind bars for much smaller crimes while this fucking hick mayor just lets a degenerate walk around for a month and gamble away 46.3 million that isn’t his. What the fuck?”