NBI to probe French fugitive on billions of dollars

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is set to begin a probe on the billions of dollars that a French fugitive is suspected of having laundered in local banks.

NBI Interpol executive officer Ludovico Lara told The STAR that 74-year-old French national Alfred Sirven may have laundered the money he allegedly embezzled from French oil company Elf Aquitane more than three years ago.

"He may have used fictitious names in his bank accounts," said Lara. "We will try to find out if he had any money deposited in our banks."

"When he was in the country, he was using fictitious names so the task now is finding what these names are and see if any bank account is under that name," Lara added.

Sirven had been in hiding in the Philippines for over three years with the help of his Filipina girlfriend Vilma Medina, who worked for him as an assistant in Paris.

Sirven, then the second top executive of Elf Aquitane, was linked to an embezzlement case amounting to $1 billion and allegedly maintained a slush fund to pay off several ranking officials of the French government.

According to Agence France Presse, Sirven had once claimed that he knew enough to "bring down the French republic 20 times over."

The NBI caught Sirven on Friday at his luxury mansion in Tagaytay City and was flown out of the country on a Lufthansa flight under the custody of French police.

The NBI had hunted Sirven all over the country for over three years but only located him after Hong Kong police informed them that his girlfriend’s driver Roberto Arasa had left Hong Kong for Manila.

The authorities held Arasa at the airport on Friday and he told police where Sirven was hiding.

Immigration officials said that Sirven’s capture should serve as a reminder that the government will not tolerate alien fugitives who are seeking sanctuary in the country.

"We are now communicating to the rest of the world that we are not a haven for fugitives and alien criminals," said newly-installed Immigration Commissioner Andrea Domingo.

However, the official’s declaration appears hollow because the Philippines continues to suffer from an international reputation as a center for money laundering.

Banking officials have said that this image has been bolstered by the corruption and plunder cases against deposed President Joseph Estrada who also allegedly used the banking system to launder bribes and kickbacks he supposedly received from shady sources.

In addition to Estrada, US-based Filipina bookkeeper Fidela Caparas was also convicted on Friday of stealing some $12.5 million dollars from her magazine publisher employer.

Lara said the NBI also suspects that Caparas may have stashed some of that money in Philippine banks.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Rafael Buenaventura had proposed early last year that the government initiate steps to curb money laundering operations among local banks.