FUKUOKA (TR) – Because that’s where the money is.
A former employee of Saga Bank has been prosecuted in the theft of more than 50 million yen from a branch in Fukuoka City last year, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Mar. 1).
On February 14, Jun Yoshida, 42, was prosecuted at the Fukuoka District Court on charges of trespassing and the theft of 54.3 million yen in cash from the bank’s Hoshikuma Branch.
On Tuesday, the bank’s president issued an apology. “As a financial institution that requires ethics and credibility, I deeply apologize,” said president Yohshihiro Jinnouchi at a press conference in Fukuoka.
On October 6, Yoshida, then a bank employee, entered the branch, located in Jonan Ward, at 10:35 p.m. after gaining access through an entrance for the exclusive use of staff. (About 30 minutes before, Yoshida stole a security card and key from the residence of a co-worker.) He then pried open a vault with the crowbar and stole the money.
Misappropriated funds
Until his eventual dismissal, Yoshida was employed in the sales support division at the Hoshikuma Branch. After the incident, an internal investigation revealed a total of 13 million yen in fixed-term deposits and investment trusts was misappropriated from corporations and individuals in 2015 and the year after.
Yoshida has also been accused of assisting three persons in trespassing into Saga Bank’s Hakozaki Branch, located in Higashi Ward, in August of last year for the purpose of another theft, according to the Sankei Shimbun (Feb. 14). Prior to that crime, Yoshida had requested that branch personnel prepare 30 million yen in cash. It is not clear if any of the cash was stolen.
The prosecution on February 14 was a supplementary indictment. Yoshida had previously been indicted for the theft of the key and card and assisting in the trespassing into the Hakozaki Branch.
