Prosecutors yesterday said they are hunting a Bank of Taiwan clerk for possible involvement in the theft of millions of NT dollars from the bank.
Hsieh Shih-hung (
"Judges have approved a request by prosecutors to prevent Hsieh from leaving the country now that he is on the run," said Chen Hung-ta (
Chen said senior clerks at the bank alleged that Hsieh had taken advantage of his position and had tried to transfer money on Tuesday afternoon to a number of accounts which were later confirmed to have been opened with fake photo identification.
The bank immediately froze Hsieh's access privileges and tried to contact him, but without success. Hsieh is alleged to have got away with NT$9.7 million.
Investigators from the justice ministry's Bureau of Investigation and police officers from the Taipei City Police Department's Chungshan Precinct are working on the case.
"Hsieh has been working for us for three years," said Chen Chin-lin (陳錦麟), a branch manager at the bank. "He is a senior clerk and also in charge of Internet banking. He is therefore quite familiar with the entire banking network."
Chen said that Hsieh could have stolen more than NT$300 million if his actions had not been detected during the transactions.
Chen said that the branch has a rule that limits the transactions a clerk can make. Any transaction exceeding that limit would not be processed without authorization from at least two of the clerk's superiors.
"How did Hsieh get away with this? It is still a mystery and we are trying to figure it out," Chen said.
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