Albania Seeks Successor for Arrested Bank Chief

"We want to give the Bank of Albania a governor from the financial or banking system, who would be praised internationally as a professional, moral and uncontestable choice," Prime Minister Edi Rama told a press conference on Monday.

Rama's statement came after the arrest and dismissal of central bank chief Ardian Fullani and the bank's chief inspector Elivar Golemi over the weekend, accused of dereliction of duty over a five million euro theft from one of the bank's vaults.

Both Fullani and Golemi have denied any wrongdoing.

On Saturday, the bank's board dismissed Fullani as governor and nominated its deputy Elisabeta Gjoni as interim bank chief.

As well as Fullani and Golemi, 17 others bank employees have arrested over the record five million euro heist, which was made public on July 21.

According to prosecutor the heist was the work of a single rogue bank employee, Adrian Bitraj, who worked in the bank's cash vault in the village of Linze, near the capital Tirana.

Prosecutors said that Bitraj, a long-term bank employee, has admitted that over a period of four years, he stole a large sum of money in banknotes.

The notes were earmarked for destruction alongside new notes that had not yet entered into circulation.

Security camera footage sequestered by the prosecutor's office shows that Bitraj breached security procedures to open the cash deposit safe on his own.

Contacted by BIRN after the theft was made public, Fullani blamed the theft on "human failures", underlining that robberies of this kind have occurred in other central banking institutions.