An employee of Swedbank is accused of client money fraud lasting for 17 years. As Latvian Television found out, she managed customer service branches in Ogre and Bauska. Swedbank emphasizes that clients should not worry, as after the thefts were discovered, the bank itself reported to the police and has already implemented measures to prevent similar cases from occurring, reports LTV.
Last week, the prosecutor's office submitted a criminal case to the Zemgale District Court, in which charges were brought against Larisa Bobrova, an employee of Swedbank, according to information from LTV. She is accused of illegal actions with client money on a large scale, as well as forgery of documents for selfish purposes. Bobrova was previously the head of customer service branches in Ogre and Bauska.
"As the branch manager, she had access to certain operations and tried to demonstrate 'super service,' telling clients: 'I will do it for you, just tell me what you need,'" explained Swedbank representative Janis Krops.
According to the prosecution, starting from 2003, for 17 years, the employee, without the clients' knowledge, arranged contracts for remote banking services in their names, ordered new code cards, calculators, and payment cards, terminated deposit agreements, arranged loan agreements, and illegally transferred client funds.
To conceal her illegal actions, she directed part of the funds to cover obligations to other clients.
"A person was simply stealing crumbs, collecting them somewhere and constantly shifting these 'cards,' hoping not to get caught. Looking back — it's not about the years, but about the fact that, by collecting these crumbs, the person hoped to gain a profit," added Krops.
According to the investigation, she used payment means from 19 people. The total damage amounts to over 203,000 euros.
The violations were discovered by the bank itself, which noticed inactive online clients — mainly pensioners who do not use online banking.
"We improved monitoring specifically for such clients and thus identified these cases," said the bank representative.
The police were handed the case five years ago. "Honestly, we were interested in having the police transfer the case to court as quickly as possible. No matter how strange it sounds, but at this moment, we, as a bank, are the injured party, as we are the ones compensating clients for their losses," noted Krops.
After this incident, the bank implemented the so-called 'four eyes principle' — documents are now centrally checked by several employees.
"Banks are safe, and keeping money in them is reliable. That such a case can happen once a decade is, unfortunately, inevitable. No one today is insured against fraudsters, against people with the intent to commit a crime, and this can happen in any organization," stated the Deputy President of the Bank of Latvia, Santa Purgaile.
Hearings on the criminal case will begin after the New Year.
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