KUALA LUMPUR, April 19 — Love of football and desperation to pay off a failed wager landed a father of three with no prior criminal record on the wrong side of the law.
Kuala Lumpur Commercial Crimes Investigations Department Chief Assistant Commissioner Luthfi Ismail Abdullah confirmed that an assistant branch manager of a prominent local bank in the city was arrested this week on suspicion of pilfering RM715,000 from a customer’s account online to pay off debts to his bookie that had accrued from a string of failed bets since last December.
“We are looking at all possible angles to establish the motive, but at this point, it is too early to be certain.
“Investigation papers will be handed over to the deputy public prosecutor, as we are looking to further extend his remand order, which is supposed to end tomorrow,” he told Malay Mail when contacted today.
According to a police source, investigations so far showed the 46-year-old man has been with the same bank for about 10 years.
Recently promoted to assistant branch manager, he started his risky habit late last year by placing huge bets of around RM100,000 on each football match.
“He was just trying his luck with the bets, but soon the debt accumulated over time after he lost most of the wagers,” said the source on condition of anonymity.
But what drove him to forge a bank customer’s online transactions was a recent RM200,000 wager on a Uefa Champions League match that he lost.
“He placed a bet of RM200,000 on Manchester City for their quarter final match which they ended up losing 3-0 to Liverpool.
“Following the loss, the suspect is believed to have been pressured to settle the debts, where he allegedly misused his powers within the bank and found an account with enough funds to wipe out his accumulating debt,” the source revealed.
The suspect, a devoted vegetarian who hails from Rawang, allegedly forged the documents needed to approve the online transaction and proceeded to deposit the RM715,000 into a mule bank account.
“Money was taken from a private company’s account and transferred into the bank account we believe were being controlled by the bookies, where checks later proved it was a dummy account,” the source said.
Not long after, the banks internal audit system detected the large transfer of sums and alerted higher management.
“After conducting their independent investigations, the branch manager lodged a police report last Saturday alleging breach of trust by one of their colleagues,” the source said.
On Monday, the source said a team from the Dang Wangi commercial crime department, headed by Inspector T. Selvakumar, raided the bank located on Jalan Raja Laut at 3.55pm and arrested the assistant branch manager.
Checks revealed the suspect has no previous criminal record, and is not blacklisted by any financial institutions.
