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    - Photo via Banco Nacional -
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Published on Monday, November 13,
2023
By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The main suspect in the $6 million cash theft, a man surnamed Olivas-Valle, who works as a treasurer for the state-owned Banco Nacional, shall remain in the Public Ministry's cells for 6 months.
According to the Public Ministry, Olivas is suspected of organizing a gang of at least eight persons to steal about $6 million in cash from the bank's vaults.
The judge ordered the remaining suspects to follow various pre-trial measures, including surrendering their passports to authorities, not leaving the country, and appearing in court every 15 days as accused of embezzlement, unlawful association, offense of duty, theft and money laundering.
This group of suspects, all also bank employees, were identified with the surnames Madrigal-Faerron who is the head of the treasury department, Blanco-Oviedo who is a supervisor, Ugalde-Morales also a supervisor, Hernández-Saborío the accountant, Cerdas-Méndez an evaluator, Ramírez-Sandí a supervisor, Herrera-Cantillo, another bank employee and Bolaños-Zúñiga the security officer.
According to the inquiry, Olivas is suspected of stealing cash from the bank's vaults for numerous years by hiding the banknotes in envelopes.
Between
Aug. 17 and September 26, 2023,
approximately 10 occurrences were
documented in which some people got
cash (from the bank vault) and put
it in envelopes. The
investigation found that the bank's
controls were clearly ineffective.
Furthermore, it is assumed that bank
authorities failed to report the
funds that were missing on Oct. 3,
the day they became aware of the
issues. The
stolen money was discovered after
control department professionals
reviewed the accounting books and
compared the results to the real
money stored in vaults. The
Public Ministry agents were
able to discover the alleged use of
the stolen money during the
investigation. They believe the
suspects obtained high-value assets.
It was also discovered that enormous
sums of money were spent on
gambling, such as the purchase of
large quantities of lottery tickets. Last
week, nine bank employees were
arrested. They
were apprehended following 11
searches conducted jointly by Judicial
Investigation Organization
agents (OIJ) agents
on the defendants' homes and offices
in the cantons of Moravia,
Guadalupe, and Desamparados in San
José Province. Furthermore,
authorities raided the offices where
the accused had worked at the bank's
headquarters. However,
the bank guarantees clients that any
potential loss of funds would not
affect their bank accounts.
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