Tokyo District Court has sentenced former Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Deputy Branch Manager Yukari Yamazaki, 47, to nine years in prison for stealing almost $2.6m from her employer, one of Japan’s largest banks.
Tokyo District Court judge Hironobu Ono handed out the sentence Monday, stating Yamazaki abused her position and inside knowledge to commit the crime.
stealing gold bars worth more than ¥330m ($2.2m) and over ¥60m ($392,224) in cash
According to Asahi Shimbun, Yamazaki raided her bank’s safe deposit boxes in 2023 and 2024, stealing gold bars worth more than ¥330m ($2.2m) and over ¥60m ($392,224) in cash.
Yamazaki confessed to the crime, saying that she had turned to theft to cover losses on horse racing betting and foreign currency trading.
News reports state that, together with unindicted cases, the total damages Yamazaki caused amounted to approximately ¥1.4bn ($9.1m) and included up to 70 victims. Mitsubishi UFJ has retrieved only a percentage of the value of items Yamazaki stole.
A rash of similar crimes led the Japanese Bankers Association in June to rule that cash can no longer be stored in safe deposit boxes.
