Court of law - Fraud trial against bank employee begins with confession
For the past four years, at a bank in Mönchengladbach, secretly, over a million Euros were withdrawn from the accounts of wealthy older private customers. The responsible bank employee is now facing trial as the suspected perpetrator. He is charged with commercial fraud, commercial embezzlement, and commercial document forgery.
"It was like a rush for me"
At the beginning of the trial, the former wealth manager made a confession. "It was like a rush for me," he said. The bank made it easy for me. "There were no controls." The defendant had been responsible for managing several private customers' assets at the bank until early April 2022. This included processing transactions and cancellations for them.
In 44 cases, according to his own statement, the defendant had forged the necessary second signature and submitted the apparently authorized transactions to the responsible bank employees.
Over 900,000 Euros transferred to joint account
Between June 2018 and April 2022, the wealth manager deliberately drained the funds of predominantly older and wealthy customers. The largest part of the stolen money - approximately 900,000 Euros – was transferred to a joint account at another bank. Slightly over 100,000 Euros went to the account of his mother-in-law.
He had already signed a confession of debt in the amount of the accused sum, the trained banker stated during the trial. An colleague had put an end to the scheme. He was surprised and had reported the matter to the bank's internal review. The trial is expected to end in late July.
The fraud trial in North Rhine-Westphalia involves an investment advisor who confessed to embezzling over a million Euros from wealthy private customers at a bank in Mönchengladbach. The defendant admitted to forging signatures and transferring a large portion of the stolen money to a joint account at another bank. His confession came at the beginning of the trial, where he mentioned the lack of controls and the thrill he felt during the acts of fraud.
