Bank Investigating Loss of Deposits

First Interstate Bank disclosed Thursday that it is investigating the disappearance earlier this month of cash and checks deposited by as many as 1,600 of its customers at four of the bank’s branches in the San Fernando Valley.

A bank spokesman, John Popovich, declined to say how much money is involved. But he acknowledged it “could well be” more than $1 million.

The bank will reimburse any losses to customers, some of whom have had checks bounce because their deposits were not recorded, Popovich said.

The disappearance of the cash and checks was discovered when deposits made March 3 at First Interstate branches in Panorama City, North Hollywood, Van Nuys and Burbank could not be found at the bank’s central processing building in downtown Los Angeles.

Popovich said the deposits had been picked up at the branches by an unidentified courier service. They were to be taken to Van Nuys Airport, where a bank helicopter was to fly them downtown.

After the helicopter made its delivery, however, officials at the central processing office discovered that deposit bags from the four branches were missing.

“We know it left the bank, and we’re 90% sure it never got to the central processing center,” Popovich said. “Somewhere in between, these bags, constituting the afternoon receipts, were missing.”

“That’s the end of what we know about it,” Popovich added, saying that the bank has not determined whether the bags were stolen or simply misplaced.

He said the bank is investigating the matter by itself and will not request help from law enforcement agencies, unless it determines a theft occurred. Although the deposit slips were lost, the bank has deposit records that were made when the money was brought in, Popovich said. After consulting those records, First Interstate mailed letters Wednesday to customers who were affected, he said.

Bank officials said most of those customers’ accounts were credited for the amount of the missing deposits during the last week. The remaining customers are expected to be credited by Tuesday.

Some customers have had checks bounce because their deposits were not recorded and have been charged for late payments and insufficient bank balances, Popovich said.

Officials of the State Banking Department, the Los Angeles County Consumer Affairs Office and the city attorney’s office said they received no consumer complaints.