Yukari Imamura Arrested for Stealing ¥260 Million in Gold Bars from MUFG Bank's Nerima Branch

Jan 14, 2025, 10:43 AM

A former employee of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) Bank, Yukari Imamura, aged 46, has been arrested by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department on suspicion of stealing gold bars valued at approximately ¥260 million from safe deposit boxes at the bank's Nerima branch. The thefts, which occurred around September of the previous year, involved about 20 kilograms of gold bars deposited by two male customers. Imamura, who was responsible for managing the safe deposit boxes at the Nerima branch, allegedly used spare keys to access the boxes and sold the stolen gold at pawn shops to fund her investments, including foreign exchange (FX) trading. The total damage from her thefts over approximately four and a half years is estimated to be in the billions of yen, affecting around 60 customers. MUFG Bank has acknowledged the issue, apologized to affected customers, and is cooperating with the police investigation while working on measures to prevent future occurrences.