Businessman gets Nu 1.46 bn in his account and uses Nu 191 mn after bank glitch

2026-03-23 - 08:31

A businessman in Bhutan with multiple bank accounts in the Bank of Bhutan (BoB) noticed a strange development with one of his CD accounts from 1st March 2026 onwards. There were unexplained and large deposits into the particular account, and each time he made payments from the CD account, instead of the balance going down, it started going up exponentially. The businessman said he waited for three days for the bank to contact him and inform him of any errors or mistaken transfers, but there was no communication. Within a week or so, his bank balance shot up from the original Nu 28,000 to a whopping Nu 1.46 billion (bn), making him one of richest men in Bhutan on paper. He said he suspected that some scammer either in Bhutan or internationally had mistakenly deposited the money into his bank account, and so he took it as a ‘jackpot’ and started using the money to pay his loans and dues. By 15th March, he had used Nu 191 million (mn) of which around Nu 60 mn was used to clear his loans at RICBL and DrukPNB, Nu 22 mn for a land purchase, and the remaining Nu 109 mn to clear dues to his business suppliers and others. The businessman said that on 16th March, he learnt that the particular account had been frozen by BoB. Not only that, BoB put a ‘hold’ on all the bank accounts to which the businessman had made transfers, which meant those accounts could receive money but not spend money. The businessman said that around 100 plus accounts were ‘frozen’ and the SMS sent to them said, “Dear customer, we would like to inform you that a recent transaction in your account is being reversed, as it pertains to an illegitimate transaction related to .... (naming the business outlet).” The businessman said that soon he was getting bombarded by calls from people he had made payments to, saying they are unable to withdraw money from their accounts at all. This also included his employees. BoB also got in touch with other banks to put a hold on payments made to other banks accounts, and asked RICBL and DrukPNB to return the loan amount. In the meantime, BoB filed a complaint with the police on 18th March alleging misuse of money by the businessman, and it has been learnt the police are treating it as a theft case. The police called him for questioning on 19th March, and detained him for investigation. He was produced before a court, but did not get bail as the police plan to detain him for sometime as part of their investigation and interrogation. Before he was detained, the businessman told this paper that he did not do anything that was criminally wrong, such as scamming someone to deposit money in his account, hacking an account or even running some scheme to fool people. He said the bank had a technical glitch, whereby money entered his account which he thought was deposited by some scammer and he used that money. “If I really had bad intentions, I could have withdrawn the entire Nu 1.46 bn and fled the country,” said the businessman. The businessman said while he used Nu 191 mn, he has offered to BoB that they convert it into a loan for which he has more than enough collateral, and he would pay it back overtime. He said that he has been defamed as it was made to appear that he had committed a scam when it was a glitch, and so he has lost his reputation with his suppliers, clients, friends and other banks. The paper talked to the BoB Management about the issue. The BoB management said the problem had occurred after the migration to a new system. BoB said that while the glitch had occurred, the businessman should not have used money and should have informed the bank. The bank said that it is trying to recover the money used by the businessman as it does not belong to him. The bank management dismissed the loan proposal saying loan cannot be given for money taken like this, as it is illicit in nature. BoB denied freezing the accounts of clients saying only a temporary hold was put to recover the money paid by the businessman. BoB clarified that no money from any other client’s accounts had gone to him, but due to a glitch the limit on his account had been removed. The bank is investigating the root cause of this glitch, which appears to be linked to a system migration that happened in February. The bank stressed that this is an isolated case within BoB, and it pointed out that other banks had also faced similar issues while migrating though the amount was smaller. BoB said it is in the process of recovering the funds spent by the businessman though it declined to officially confirm the amounts, saying the bank is still looking into it. The businessman’s family member and a friend said that the Nu 1.46 bn and Nu 191 mn figures had been shared to them by junior BoB officials when they met them initially. BoB had contacted RICBL and Druk PNB with written communication, and said it will provide a letter of indemnity (indemnifying RICBL Druk PNB against risks) to get back the loan funds. BoB has also informed the Royal Monetary Authority (RMA) with a preliminary report and RMA is waiting for the root cause analysis. An RMA team will be meeting with BoB bank personnel to find out what happened and how. By Friday, it appears that BoB has started removing the hold in many accounts after reversing the payments and largely securing back the funds. The businessman asked how the glitch happened when any bank does a closing at the end of day to reconcile debit and credit. A closer look shows that the CD account of the businessman was linked to three accounts that were supposed to deposit their deposits at the end of the day there. A family member said that after talking to bank officials, what they learnt is that as money went from the main CD account one of the linked accounts was going into negative balance in a major way which was not known to them. A negative balance is a new concept in Bhutan where your account owes the bank money, going below the zero limit and next time a deposit is made there it automatically deducts the money coming in. This is also why BoB officials could not catch this by the end of the day as debit and credit had been reconciled due to the negative balance in another account. The businessman and his family argue that he has not committed any crime, and therefore his case should be treated as a civil matter rather than a criminal one. A friend questioned who would be held responsible for the tax burden when revenue officials examine his bank statements, given the large sums of money flowing into the CD account. BoB said it identified and resolved the issue and put in additional safeguards to further strengthen resilence and prevent recurrence. BoB said its banking system is stable, secure and fully operational after resolving what was an isolated incident.