A 39-year-old ex-employee of Tokyo Sowa Bank has been arrested for allegedly embezzling customers' deposits under threat of blackmail, police sources said Wednesday.
His two suspected blackmailers were also arrested.
Arrested were Masaaki Nagata, former marketing division chief at the Tokyo regional bank's Omori branch; Kazuhide Takahashi, 59, a professional driver from Tokyo; and his live-in girlfriend, Yaeko Hayakawa, 61, police said.
Investigators said that in early 1996, Takahashi approached Nagata with the intention of canceling several million yen worth of time deposits he had at the branch.
In an effort to protect his marketing record, Nagata refunded Takahashi's deposits from his own money as he did not want any time deposits canceled.
Between March through May that year, Takahashi and Hayakawa then blackmailed Nagata for 20 million yen, threatening to tell the bank's management about his unauthorized refunding of the deposits, the investigators said. Nagata allegedly canceled time deposits belonging to two other customers, in May 1996 and March 1999, without their consent.
Nagata's alleged embezzlement was uncovered after he reported the blackmailing to police.
Nagata was dismissed in March by Tokyo Sowa, which was declared insolvent in June 1999 and is currently looking for a buyer.