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TOKYO: A Tokyo court sentenced a former employee at one of Japan’s biggest banks to nine years in jail for repeatedly stealing gold bars and cash totalling nearly US$2.6 million (S$3.36 million), slamming her crimes as “heinous”.
Yukari Yamazaki, who worked for Mitsubishi UFJ and had a gambling addiction, began thieving after falling into debt due to currency trading and horse betting, according to a court ruling seen by AFP on Tuesday (Oct 7).
Abusing her position and inside knowledge to “incapacitate the security system”, Yamazaki purloined gold bars worth more than 330 million yen (S$2.83 million), and over 60 million yen in cash, from safety deposit boxes at her bank in 2023 and 2024.
“The circumstances surrounding her crime are so heinous that they have rarely been seen before,” Tokyo District Court judge Hironobu Ono wrote in the ruling, which was handed down Oct 6.
Mitsubishi UFJ Bank has been able to retrieve only a portion of the amount she stole.
Despite the defendant’s lack of previous criminal history and the fact she has “vowed to undergo treatment for her gambling addiction”, Ono said a nine-year jail term was “unavoidable”.
Thefts by bank employees at other institutions have also been uncovered, prompting the Japanese Bankers Association to revise its safety deposit box guidelines in June, specifying that cash “cannot be stored”. - AFP
