Recasts with official company announcement. Changes media packaging keyword from earlier PRUDENTIAL-JAPAN/JAPAN

TOKYO, Jan 16 (Reuters) - The CEO of Prudential Financial's PRU.N Japan life insurance unit will resign following revelations of misconduct by about 100 of its employees totalling roughly 3.1 billion yen ($19.60 million), including embezzlement of funds, the Japanese company said on Friday.

The diversified U.S. financial services company's Japan unit said in a statement that 498 customers were affected by the newly uncovered misconduct, such as employees improperly receiving funds through investment solicitations and personally borrowing money from customers.

CEO and President Kan Mabara is set to step down effective February 1, the company said. Hiromitsu Tokumaru, president and CEO of Prudential Gibraltar Financial Life Insurance, will replace Mabara, it added.

The Asahi newspaper had earlier on Friday reported the widespread misconduct.

The Prudential unit, which had first flagged the misconduct in 2024, said it had been conducting a review since August that year after uncovering multiple cases of similar financial misconduct by employees and former employees during or after their employment.

($1 = 158.1600 yen)

(Reporting by Tokyo Newsroom;Editing by Chang-Ran Kim and Muralikumar Anantharaman)

((ran.kim@thomsonreuters.com))