Citibank has filed a criminal complaint against a former branch manager who is suspected of embezzling almost 2 billion yen in customer savings.
Officials of the U.S. bank said Friday the former manager might have embezzled 1.8 billion yen in money collected as deposits from five individual customers while working as manager of the Shibuya and Yokohama branch offices for several years from 1995.
The bank said there are no records showing the former manager put the money in the customer bank accounts as requested.
The manager left Citibank in July 2001 to move to another financial institution but may have continued to collect money from Citibank customers by pretending to still be the manager, they said.
The misdeed came to light in late August, when one of the customers asked the bank about their money, prompting an internal probe.
The public relations department of Citibank expressed regret over the case, although the bank said it was a crime by an individual ex-manager.