The Metropolitan Police Department arrested a former Mizuho Bank employee Monday on suspicion of embezzling 22 million yen from customers' savings accounts, part of 1.34 billion yen allegedly misappropriated by the suspect.

Masashi Sasaki from Higashiyoka, Saga Prefecture, 45, is suspected of stealing the money from 25 customers after claiming the funds were to be transferred from their ordinary accounts into higher-yielding time deposits, sources said.

Tokyo police believe the fraud occurred on more than 80 occasions at several Mizuho Bank branches in Saitama and Tokyo between November 1999 and July 2004, where the suspect had worked, the sources said.