City employee in Osaka accused of embezzlement

An city employee in a Osaka Prefecture, western Japan is facing theft and embezzlement charges after he allegedly stole about 4 million yen (about $40,800) from city coffers, local media reported Monday.



The city admitted that its inspection team found a total of 260 million yen (about $2.65 million) of its expenditure has been unaccounted for since 2009.



According to the reports including one by the daily Asahi Shimbun, the official working as an advisor at the welfare section of Kawachinagano City in eastern Osaka was accused earlier this month of embezzling the amount of public funds that should be paid for social welfare payments after the team discovered many " suspicious" receipts.



The reports said the fraud was carried out by the employee in his 40s who would repeatedly manipulate computer data at his workplace while requesting payments billed from a nonexistent account between May 2010 and November 2010.



In addition, the reports noted that the city's inspection team which had found the large amount of the money missing out, over for a two-year period since January 2009, from the funds for welfare payment continues its investigation into the mysterious case after the accusation in joint cooperation with the prefectural police.



The police already searched several places including the employee's working room in the city hall and his house on Sunday.

