BML suspends Vilingili branch employee for alleged fraud

An employee at Bank of Maldives (BML) in the Gaaf Dhaal Atoll Vilingili branch has been suspended on allegations of fraud.

The bank did not identify the employee to the press.

A person from the island told Haveeru that the employee had allegedly sent a forged letter to the branch manager in the account owner’s name, requesting that Rf 2,000 (US$130) be transferred to another account.

It is believed that the money was transferred to the account of one of the employee’s friends.

The fraud came into light when the account owner’s mother went to the bank to withdraw Rf 2,000 only to find that the amount was not available.

“When the bank told her that the account did not have that much cash in it she objected, stressing that her child had deposited the amount. The employee was suspended after the bank tracked down the transaction,” the person said.

In a statement forwarded to Haveeru, the bank said employees found responsible for the fraud had been suspended and that the bank, like any other bank in the world, sometimes faced cases of staff fraud.

“But given the millions of transactions made at the bank annually, the numbers of fraud cases are considerably less compared to global rates of such incidences,” the statement read.

The statement further noted that the mechanism necessary for customer protection is fully established at the bank and that a system, which allows the tracking of transactions and all customer-employee exchanges, is accessible at all times.