CHIBA, Japan - An employee of Chiba Bank allegedly skimmed cash from the bank's ATM machines to the tune of about $450,000 according to criminal charges that have been filed against the employee.
The unnamed employee has confessed to the crime, according to Japan's Daily Yomiuri newspaper, after an internal investigation this past October uncovered the theft. The bank has already fired the employee, who stole the money over the course of a year and had returned some of the funds in order to cover his activities.
The incident is the third in less than a decade involving Chiba Bank, according to the Daily Yomiuri. In 1997, two employees at a branch in Mobara were reprimanded after setting up a savings account without a customer's permission. Three years earlier, about $160,000 was found missing at bank headquarters.
