Fake Hibiki whisky sellers arrested in Japan

Two men have been arrested after they were found to be selling fake Suntory Hibiki whisky through the flea market app Mercari in Japan.

As reported by Japan Times, police arrested two men last week for allegedly selling fakes of Suntory Spirits’s limited-edition 30-year-old Hibiki whisky via the app.

Takeaki Nemoto, 29, and Yu Sasagawa, 26, both from Tokyo, were arrested by the Mie Prefectural Police on suspicion of fraud and violating the trademark act.

The men are suspected of infringing upon the trademark of Suntory Holdings, the parent company of Suntory Spirits, as well as cheating a man in Sendai out of ¥990,000.

The two have admitted to selling the products, but they denied some of the charges, saying that they had no intention of deceiving anyone.

The pair are accused of selling five counterfeits of Hibiki 30 Years on four occasions via the Mercari app, to a 29-year-old male corporate employee, around June-July last year.

Suntory only makes a few thousand bottles of Hibiki 30 Years every year, which costs ¥125,000 a bottle (£870). According to the paper, the boxes and the bottles of the fake products were genuine, but the contents had been replaced.