crime

Banco Uno fraud cost $2 million

Security experts say banks should have a special unit dedicated to auditing and oversight.

LA PRENSA / Maydée Romero

Lack of Controls: A Banco Uno employee defrauded clients and embezzled $2 million from the private bank. 1022013

Banco Uno official Carmen Lita Dominicci has confessed to embezzling $2 million from the private financial institution, legal sources reported. Dominicci claims to have acted alone. She is now being held in a woman's prison, the sources say.

Dominicci had been persuading clients to move money they had accumulated in fixed term accounts to other investment instruments that would yield higher returns. But she never reinvested the capital. Instead she transferred the funds to a separate account where their movement was not detected and, over a period of more than a year, amassed $2 million for herself.

The "mistake" she made, sources remarked, was "to touch an account she shouldn't have." That account belonged to a client Dominicci thought was living outside the country. The account holder noticed the disappearnce of $150,000 and presented a claim to the bank for the missing money. Dominicci's explanation did not satisfy the bank, so it initiated the investigation that eventually led to her confession and incarceration.

Gregori Lince of the Comité de Seguridad Bancaria de la Asociación Bancaria de Panamá said it's important for banks to know their employees and establish supervisory and follow-up procedures. "Banks should have a unit solely for auditing and oversight to guarantee that everything is proceeding properly," he said.