TOKYO - The Japanese author of globally popular manga series Saint Seiya, Masami Kurumada, said on Sept 2 he was suing a former business associate for allegedly embezzling US$29 million (S$37 million).

Kurumada, 72, said that the former manager responsible for the accounting of the artiste’s businesses siphoned off the sum over more than 10 years.

“I trusted this man with all of our monetary inflows and outflows. But he had been embezzling (from the firms) for over a decade,” Kurumada told a news conference in Tokyo.

“You hear about these types of embezzlement crimes in the news. Yet I myself, in my over-50-year career, have never encountered a bad man like this in the world of anime and comic books. I couldn’t believe it. I was like, ‘Why?’”

The former manager has returned 1.8 billion yen (S$14.3 million) of the 4.68 billion yen he is alleged to have embezzled, according to local media.

Kurumada has filed a damage claim with the Tokyo District Court against the former staff member and his businesses to recover the remaining 2.89 billion yen, local media said.

The author reportedly said that his business Kurumada Production “could have gone bankrupt” and that the company’s accounts had limited funds at the time the embezzlement was discovered, “making it impossible to pay significant taxes”.

Kurumada began writing Saint Seiya in the 1980s for the weekly Shonen Jump, an influential manga publication that has produced global hits like One Piece, Dragon Ball and Naruto.

Saint Seiya has sold more than 50 million copies worldwide, according to the specialist site Mangazenkan.

Drawing heavily on Greek mythology, it has been adapted into an animated series, anim...