Social media influencer Reika Kuroki, 38, known to her roughly 500,000 Instagram followers as “Reika Miyazaki,” was sentenced Wednesday to two years and six months in prison, suspended for four years, for tax evasion. Her company, Solarie, was fined 40 million yen, according to The Japan News.
Kuroki concealed about 496 million yen in income over three years by booking fictitious outsourcing expenses, evading roughly 157 million yen in taxes, according to the indictment cited by the Tokyo Reporter.
The court called the scheme organized and said she acted out of self-serving reasoning, but suspended her sentence after she filed amended tax returns, according to The Japan News and the Tokyo Reporter.
At an earlier hearing, Kuroki admitted the charges but also accused a tax investigator of sexual harassment during a raid on her home, a claim the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau denied, according to the Tokyo Reporter.
She had branded herself online as a “charismatic working mom” and Japan’s top influencer, and bowed quietly as she left court Wednesday, according to the Tokyo Reporter and The Japan News.
