Photo/Illutration Tottori Morishigyo Co.’s Tottori office in Kotoura, Tottori Prefecture (Shinya Okudaira)

KOTOURA, Tottori Prefecture--A man who has been dismissed for embezzling about 800 million yen ($5.63 million) from his company said he blew most of the money at the track. 

Tottori Morishigyo Co., a cardboard manufacturer, dismissed the employee who was long in charge of accounting as of June 9, an official of Oji Holdings Corp. said on June 21.

Tottori Morishigyo, a group company of Oji Holdings, filed a criminal complaint over the embezzlement with Tottori prefectural police.

The former employee, who told the company that he lost most of the money playing the horses, does not have the assets to repay the funds, according to the source.

The man, who worked at the company’s Tottori office in Kotoura, Tottori Prefecture, took about 800 million yen between around 2014 and 2023.

He carried away cash from the safe at the office and withdrew money from the company’s bank accounts.

He was in a position to access the key to the safe and the bank passbooks.

He fabricated accounting slips to make the books match up with the remaining amount.

The embezzlement came to light after Morishigyo Co., the Kyoto-based parent of Tottori Morishigyo, found suspicious slips while compiling its financial results for the fiscal year ending in March and examined accounting data.

The Oji Holdings official declined to detail the methods used for the embezzlement.

“We were unable to notice (the misconduct) because it was covered up with ingenious tricks for a long time,” the source said. “We will prevent a recurrence by strengthening checking systems for accounting work.”

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