Tansa investigated the connection between a drug smuggling case in Okinawa and an app used to trade sexually explicit images.

Through our investigation, we learned of two men involved in the operations of Album Collection, an app used to trade child sexual abuse material and other nonconsensual, sexually explicit images.

One was William Leal, the CEO of Album Collection’s operating company, Eclipse, which was incorporated in Hawaii.

The other was Shaun Hart. Hart had fled the US to Japan in 2018 and was wanted by the US authorities. In 2019, he established a company in Tokyo and, in 2021, was arrested by the Okinawa Prefectural Police on suspicion of drug smuggling. Although Leal was arrested as part of the same operation, he ultimately wasn’t charged.

From our investigation to date, we had realized that although Leal was CEO of Eclipse, Hart was the one with the power in their relationship.

However, we doubted whether only the two of them had been involved in Album Collection’s operations. The app had generated millions of dollars in profits — were others also receiving a share? Considering that Hart had fled to Japan while wanted by US authorities, we thought he might have had organized backup.

The key lay in the drug smuggling case in Okinawa. Eight others were arrested in addition to Hart and Leal.

Smuggling via a private mailbox at a US military base

The following is an overview of the Okinawa drug smuggling case, which we pieced together from court documents, questions to Okinawa Prefectural Police, and news reports.

In June 2021, Hart and others attempted to smuggle drugs from the US. Authorities seized 2.25 kg of cocaine — worth over 45 million yen (roughly $292,000) — as well as approximately 2 kg of liquid cannabis and approximately 0.1 kg of solid cannabis. Hart led the operation.

The drugs were purchased from a source in the US and delivered to a private mailbox at a US military base in Okinawa. The package containing the drugs was received by a civilian employee of the US military and subsequently transported to Tokyo via multiple individuals; each courier was paid either 100,000 or 200,000 yen (roughly $650 or $1,300). The couriers were instructed to travel by ship or bullet train, neither of which require baggage inspection, when transporting the goods from Okinawa to Tokyo.

Among the 10 individuals arrested was William Leal, CEO of Eclipse, Album Collection’s operating company. Leal was subsequently cleared of involvement and not prosecuted.

Hart was sentenced to 13 years in prison and a fine of 5 million yen (roughly $32,000). He is currently serving his sentence in a prison in Japan.

“Not a despicable character… a nice guy”

However, Hart had plead not guilty at his trial.

We interviewed the lawyer who had defended Hart, Taku Ooi. Ooi was not court-appointed; rather, he was a private attorney that Hart had hired.

As a lawyer, Ooi had made it his life’s work to tackle issues related to poverty. He also focused on child welfare, filing a lawsuit against the national government in 2024 that aimed to hold the government accountable for childcare-related accidents. “The state has a responsibility to guarantee safe childcare for all children,” he said at a press conference held the day the lawsuit was filed.

Ooi said his impression of Hart was that he was, “frankly, the kind of person admired by others.”

“Speaking as a lawyer, I didn’t get the impression that he was some kind of despicable character — if anything, he seemed like a nice guy,” he added.

Ooi said Hart had claimed to be a systems engineer with technical skills.

Reason for pleading not guilty

In court, Hart had cited the following reason for pleading not guilty.

“I did not know the package contained illegal drugs.”

“Someone else had asked me to handle the package containing the drugs.”

What did he mean?

Before his arrest, Hart had been processing and selling CBD, a cannabis-derived compound, in forms such as sticks, gummies, and oil. Although CBD is not illegal in Japan, it can only be imported if it follows maximum permissible levels for its components and therefore does not qualify as a narcotic.

Hart sourced his CBD from the US. However, since his orders sometimes got lost, he started using a private mailbox at a US military base in Okinawa to receive packages, based on a recommendation from an acquaintance. At the time of his arrest, he had received packages at this private mailbox about six times. Each shipment yielded a profit of about 10 million yen (about $65,000).

Hart claimed he had allowed another person to use this post box at the US military base. The drugs that led to the arrest were contained in a package that this individual had imported to this private mailbox. Hart claimed to have received it without knowing what it contained. That individual had previously imported CBD, so Hart didn’t suspect the package to contain illegal substances.

If his claims were true, Hart could have been judged not guilty.

An unverified alibi

The individual Hart alleged to have ordered the drugs was referred to as “Shimamura” in the court documents. The judgment recorded the defense’s argument as follows. The “defendant” refers to Hart.

“An acquaintance of the defendant, called Shimamura, ordered the shipment using the import route in question. When Shimamura previously imported goods through this route, the defendant saw that the contents of the shipment were the legal substance CBD. Therefore, the defendant believed the contents of this shipment as well to be CBD or similar substances,” the judgement noted.

It would have been necessary to question Shimamura to verify Hart’s claim. However, the police and prosecutors did not do so. He never appeared in court as a witness. The court documents only wrote the surname “Shimamura” in katakana, a phonetic script usually only used for Japanese names when the name’s kanji (Chinese characters) are unknown.

However, the court ruled that Hart had actively managed the packages delivered to the private mailbox.

“In handling the delivery of the package in question, the defendant issued instructions and exercised control over the relevant personnel in the same manner as with other packages, and has borne all costs, including the high remuneration for the relevant personnel as well as their transportation and lodging expenses,” it noted.

In other words, Hart had managed the package shipped from the US to the US military base in Okinawa, and had given instructions to the other individuals involved with the import. Therefore, it was unlikely that he had not known the package’s contents.

I remembered a certain Japanese man

I had many questions about this “Shimamura.” Despite being the person on whom Hart’s claim of innocence was founded, their identity remained unknown.

Then, I remembered something — a comment from a staff member of the accounting firm that handled the account for Eclipse, Album Collection’s operating company.

According to this staff member, two or three people from Eclipse, including Hart, had participated in meetings with the accounting firm. William Leal, the CEO, was not one of them.

Regarding the other individual, aside from Hart, they had said, “He was Japanese and in his 20s. His appearance was a little, well, not exactly semi-gangster, maybe more cool. Like a put-together semi-gangster.”

“This person really had a clear grasp of the numbers, and he was the one I dealt with from beginning to end,” they continued.

On the other hand, the staff member said of Hart, “It was like they only had him because he could speak English and they planned to do business in the US. That was how little he understood what was going on.”

Could the “Shimamura” that Hart named in the Okinawa drug smuggling case be the same person that the accounting firm staff had referred to as a “semi-gangster”?

Only Hart knew the truth.

We sent two letters to the incarcerated Hart, requesting an interview. In the letters, we asked him to explain the connection with Shimamura, but we received no reply.

In December 2024, we went to the prison to try to speak with him in person. But when informed of our request by the prison officer, Hart reportedly simply replied, “I decline.”

To be continued.

(Originally published on June 13, 2025.)

Uploaded and Re-Uploaded: All articles