MAEBASHI — A banker in east Japan has been dismissed for embezzling a total of 55.35 million yen (about $377,000) from customers, using most of the money for online sports gambling.

The Gunma Bank Ltd., headquartered in the Gunma Prefecture capital of Maebashi, announced on Oct. 2 that the former employee in his 20s at the Fukaya branch doubling as the Fukaya-Kamishiba branch in Fukaya, Saitama Prefecture, had embezzled the money on the pretext of exchanging it into new banknotes whose circulation began on July 3.

Fukaya is the hometown of industrialist Eiichi Shibusawa (1840-1931), whose portrait is on the new 10,000 yen (approx. $68) bill. The man’s disciplinary dismissal is dated Sept. 20. The bank consulted with Gunma Prefectural Police and is considering filing a criminal complaint against him.

According to the bank, the former employee falsely told a total of 16 individual and corporate clients in Saitama Prefecture between Aug. 13 and Sept. 3 that, “We have a target to exchange money into the new notes and will do it for free,” and put the cash he received into his own bank account. He then reportedly spent several tens of millions of yen on gambling on Japanese professional baseball and major league baseball games among other purposes.

The employer discovered his misconduct after receiving inquiries from customers including one who said they wanted to cooperate with the bank’s target in exchanging money. The bank apologized to the affected customers and refunded the full amount.

Between July and early August, the former employee had exchanged all of the cash received from customers he approached. He reportedly said in an interview, “I wanted to make the customers happy.”

(Japanese original by Azusa Hinata, Maebashi Bureau)