The Sidi M’hamed correctional court in Algiers opened the case of two employees of the Algerian National Bank (BNA), prosecuted for embezzling foreign currency funds from several bank clients. The two accused in the case are the treasurer and the cashier of this agency, reports this Tuesday, October 27, the Arabic- language daily Ennahar.
It all started when the security services received a complaint from 7 clients of the Algerian National Bank ( BNA ) agency located in El Mouradia, Algiers. The victims claimed that large sums of foreign currency disappeared from their bank accounts.
According to what was said during the trial, it all started in March 2018, when the bank’s treasurer stole the password from the cashier’s computer that gave him access to customer accounts. Subsequently, the treasurer used customer data to withdraw large amounts of foreign currency from their accounts. For this, he used 50 checks with false signatures from the victims to withdraw the money, the total value of which is estimated at more than a billion centimes in Algerian currency.
The defendants deny all the facts
Presented before the court of Sidi M’hamed, the treasurer completely denied the facts with which he is accused while affirming that he was not the only one to have the password for the cashier’s computer. The latter also carried all the responsibility on the back of the treasurer, denying any implication in the affair.
Also cited in the case, the former director of the bank said for his part that he was not aware of the case of embezzlement and that his intervention in the operations of withdrawals of money was limited to cases where the withdrawal amount exceeded one thousand euros.
After listening to all parties, the public prosecutor finally requested a 5-year prison sentence for the accused, along with a fine of one million dinars. They are the subject of charges related to embezzlement of private funds, forgery, and use of false bank documents, abuse of power and neglect. The verdict in this case will be known next week.
