A 40-year-old Korean man in Tokyo has been arrested for scouting a Japanese woman in her 20s to be a prostitute in the United States.

According to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, the suspect, Jeong Young-hwa, approached the woman on a street in Shinsaibashi, Osaka, in February 2023, told her she was beautiful and could make big money working in the sex industry in America, NTV reported.

Police said Jeong, who got the woman a job at a brothel in Washington DC, is believed to be a member of a scout group called Ambitious, which is active in Osaka. The group receives a portion of the income earned from prostitution by women they recruit.

The woman entered the U.S. as a tourist and returned home with an income of about 9.6 million yen in one month. Ambitious received 15% of that as compensation.

Jeong is the third person to be arrested in connection with the case. Police said he has denied the allegation and quoted him as saying,"I don't know what this is all about."

The two other arrested men are suspected of violating the Employment Security Law by recruiting women on a job site under the pretense of "working overseas" in April and May of last year and sending them to overseas prostitution rings.