Paro court passed the judgment on the Royal Insurance Corporation of Bhutan Limited’s (RICBL) embezzlement case today. The judgment comes two years after the case surfaced. The main accused Rinchen Wangdi and Yezer Dema are sentenced to 20 years and 10 years in prison, respectively.
Rinchen Wangdi who worked with the RICBL as an accountant was alleged of embezzling Nu 140 million. In the judgment passed today, Rinchen is sentenced for embezzlement, forgery, participation in offence and tampering document. He is also asked to restitute more than Nu 63 million to RICBL within 10 days.
His ally, Yezer Dema who worked with the Bhutan National Bank (BNB) as an IT officer is sentenced for participation in offence, concealment of corruption and tampering documents. She has to restitute Nu 35 million to RICBL within 10 days.
In the same case, Dorji Wangdi a businessman from Paro is sentenced to 9 years for concealment of corruption and another compoundable 6 months for tampering document. He has to pay Nu 11 million in restitution to the RICBL.
Tshering Wangdi and Norbu Tshering are sentenced to 5-year non-compoundable prison term each for tampering documents and participation in the offence. According to the verdict, Tshering Wangdi is also sentenced to a 2-year compoundable prison term for concealment of corruption.
Three more men were also sentenced for embezzlement, official misconduct and participation in the offence. Hiruka, a former employee of RICBL is sentenced to 3 years in prison for embezzlement and has to restitute Nu 1 million to RICBL. Yeshi Dorji, a former BNB employee is sentenced to 1 year for official misconduct. Pema Wangda also a former employee of BNB is sentenced to 18 months for participation in the offence and has to restitute Nu 500,000 to RICBL.
The embezzlement was committed between 2012 and mid of 2015.
Sangay Chezom
