Albanian court convicts 10 central bank employees over vault theft

An Albanian court has convicted 10 central bank employees for abuse of office in the theft of millions of U.S. dollars from the bank vaults, Judge Martin Dedaj said Thursday.

The bank discovered early last August that at least 713 million lek (5.8 million dollars) were missing during an inventory check of its monetary assets.

Ardian Bitraj, a worker at the central bank, admitted stealing the money over a course of four years and reportedly claimed to having gambled away all the cash.

The 10 convicted, including several heads of department, were sentenced from eight to 18 months in prison. Dhimiter Davidi, the supervisory operator, who had seen Bitraj steal money without reporting him, got a prison term of 18 months.

Former Chief of the Active Cash Stock Bashkim Xhilaga, was sentenced to one year and four months in prison, but was released on bail for health reasons.

There is yet a conviction for the three key suspects for the theft, namely Bitraj, Klevis Bejtja and Mimoza Bruzia, due to the absence of the latter.

Gent Sejko, the new central bank governor, has sent a request to the First Instance Court in Tirana to demand the restitution of the missing money, according to Albanian media. Endi