QCOSTARICA — Two treasury employees have been suspended from their duties at the Banco Nacional (BN) branch in Ciudad Quesada, San Carlos after money was found missing during a surprise count.
Both were criminally reported to the Public Ministry.
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Telenoticias reported this morning that the State bank had on Monday filed a criminal complaint against an official who worked as a treasury assistant after it detected a shortage of ¢560,000 colones (US$1,072) in one of the areas of the regional treasury.
Though, unofficially, the amount missing may be much, much higher.
The short count led the bank to carry out an internal investigation, resulting in the provisional suspension of the employee and a criminal complaint filed with the San Carlos Prosecutor’s Office for Probity, Transparency and Anti-Corruption.
Although the bank referred to only one official, Telenoticias reported that the Public Ministry confirmed two employees were involved in case number 24-000002-1769-PE filed on January 19, 2024, for the crime of embezzlement.
The “shortage” at the San Carlos branch is small in comparison to the over ¢3 billion colones discovered missing, presumably extracted by a group of bank employees, from the bank’s central archives in the case known as “Gallo Tapado” some months ago.
See Biggest bank heist in Costa Rican history an inside job, Banco Nacional reveals
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Being a State bank, the country’s legislators have asked the bank to improve inspection controls in the treasuries.
Last week, the Banco Nacional fired “sin responsabilidad patronal” (without employer responsibility) meaning the employer is only obliged to compensate the worker for the aguinaldo and vacation, the legal director Marieta Herrera, for her delay in reporting the “Gallo Tapado” case.
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