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Bandai Namco Sues Former Worker for Allegedly Embezzling 600 Million Yen in Mobile Devices

Bandai Namco Holdings revealed on Wednesday that it is suing a former employee for 600 million yen (about US$4.65 million) in damages, claiming that the employee sold internal company smartphones without authorization for personal profit.

According to Bandai Namco Holdings, its subsidiary company Bandai Namco Entertainment first noticed a discrepancy between the smartphones registered in its internal system, and the number of smartphones actually being used by its employees in November 2021, and launched an internal investigation. The company launched a deeper investigation on a suspected employee in April 2022. The company discovered that the employee allegedly embezzled and sold 4,400 company smartphones between April 2015 and April 2022, worth 600 million yen.

Bandai Namco Entertainment fired the employee in December 2022. A number of Bandai Namco Holdings and Bandai Namco Entertainment executives will also be taking pay cuts from 10-30% of their monthly salaries over the next three months as a way of taking responsibility for the incident.

Sources: Bandai Namco Holdings, Gamebiz via Hachima Kikō

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Disclosure: Bandai Namco Filmworks Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Bandai Namco Holdings Inc., is a non-controlling, minority shareholder in Anime News Network Inc.