Albania Jails Ten Over Central Bank Theft

The Tirana First Instance Court handed down the jail terms on Thursday following a speedy trial.

The ten employees received relatively light sentences following a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty to the charges.

One ex-bank employee, Bashkim Xhilaga, received a suspended sentence, based on his health condition.  

The jail terms relate to a controversy that erupted last August when a rogue ex-employee confessed to have stolen 713 million leks (?5.1 million) from the vaults of the Central Bank.

The former employee, Adrian Bitraj, is being tried separately.

Following public outrage over the scale of the theft, the governor of the Central Bank, Ardian Fullani, was arrested on September 5 and accused of abuse of office.

Fullani, who had run the bank since 2004, and who was the first post-communist governor to win a second mandate on 2009, denies the allegations and has been released awaiting trial.

Since Fullani's arrest, the bank has faced uncertainty as Albania's right-wing President and left-wing parliament haggled over a successor.

Five months after his arrest, in mid-February parliament replaced him with Gent Sejko, former head of Societe Generale Bank in Albania.

Sejko, who was proposed by President Bujar Nishani, was finally accepted by parliament after five months, the longest-known vacancy for this position in two decades.

  

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