Nami Kazutsugi, a 75 years old Japanese businessman, who leads the L & G, is accused of having organized a system pretty similar to that of Bernard Madoff.

But just before his arrest Thursday February 5, he did not hesitate to say: "The police have ruined my business. Nobody has lost as much as me."

The "Ponzi Scheme" or "Pyramid Scheme" which he created between 2001 and 2007 allowed him to collect between 1 and 2 billions, by promising fabulous yields (nearly 36% last year) to his clients.

Funds from new investors were used to pay the interests of prior investors. More than 37,000 people might be victims of this fraud.

L & G issued its own currency, the "enten", a combination of ideograms "yen" and "paradise", that Mr Nami wanted to become a global currency.

For each deposit of $1000, the investor received 100,000 "enten" that he could spend in L & G stores, a sort of bazaar installed throughout the archipelago, the online sales sites or partner hotels.