His accomplice, Yeshey Dorji, a messenger, is accused to have embezzled over Nu. 4.174 million. The rest of the accomplices are accused of helping and covering up the crime.

According to the bank’s deputy managing director, Karma, the culprits had siphoned the money into their accounts by creating fictitious clients.

GE loan accounts were created under fictitious names, the loan sanctioned, and then the money was transferred into their own accounts.

For example, the culprits availed a loan of Nu. 100,000 for a fictitious person with a new bank account. Then they withdrew Nu. 70,000 from the account and kept the remaining so that the monthly installment was recovered by the bank from the account.

The remaining amount in the bank was enough to last for three years.

After the three years was complete there were defaults in the payment so, on investigation, the racket was discovered.

According to the bank’s deputy managing director, clients need not worry about their money being embezzled since it was the bank’s money that was stolen.

“We have a system where none of the BNB staff can steal money from the clients accounts. It was a case of the employees stealing from their own bank,” he said. The whole scandal had been possible because of the illegal sharing of the GE loan password, according to BNB officials.

Meanwhile the GE loan, suspended since April 13, will be resumed from July. The BNB board has also increased the GE loan ceiling from Nu. 100,000 to Nu. 150,000.

The GE loan, the bank’s most popular and profitable loan scheme, was introduced in 1997 when the Unit Trust of Bhutan was converted into Bhutan’s second commercial bank as the Bhutan National Bank.

The bank has 11,197 GE loan clients who have taken loans totaling Nu. 330.72 million.