Yukari Yamazaki bank theft case ends in 9-year sentence for stealing $2.6m in gold and cash. Tokyo court slams her crimes as ‘heinous’ and rare in scope

Yukari Yamazaki bank theft case has ended in a nine-year jail term after a Tokyo court convicted the former Mitsubishi UFJ employee of stealing gold bars and cash worth nearly $2.6 million.

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The court described her actions as “heinous” and almost unprecedented in Japanese banking history.

Yamazaki, who worked at one of Japan’s largest financial institutions, Mitsubishi UFJ Bank, began embezzling funds in 2023 after racking up massive debt through currency speculation and horse race betting.

Using her inside access and detailed knowledge of the bank’s security systems, she disabled surveillance and accessed safety deposit boxes to steal gold bars worth over 330 million yen ($2.2 million) and more than 60 million yen in cash across 2023 and 2024.

Judge Hironobu Ono, delivering the ruling on Monday at Tokyo District Court, said:

“The circumstances surrounding her crime are so heinous that they have rarely been seen before.”

Although Yamazaki has no prior criminal record and has pledged to seek treatment for her gambling addiction, the judge insisted the scale and deliberate nature of the crime warranted a full nine-year custodial sentence.

Despite recovery efforts, Mitsubishi UFJ has only managed to retrieve a portion of the stolen assets.

The case has rocked Japan’s banking sector and prompted the Japanese Bankers Association to revise its security protocols in June, explicitly banning the storage of cash in safety deposit boxes — a direct response to Yamazaki’s method of theft.

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The Yukari Yamazaki bank theft has since triggered wider investigations into internal fraud at other institutions, with experts urging tighter controls and psychological support for employees facing financial distress.