RCBC sues Deguito, Torres

MANILA, Philippines – Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) Jupiter branch manager Maia Santos-Deguito and senior customer relations officer Angela Torres are now facing criminal charges in connection with the $81-million money laundering controversy.

The bank filed charges before the Makati City Prosecutor’s Office against Deguito and Torres for falsification of commercial documents after they allegedly tampered with the accounts of businessman William Go, according to a report by ABS-CBN News.

RCBC lawyer Macel Fernandez-Estavillo said the bank is also checking the involvement of another employee, Adrian Yujuico, who worked at the Jupiter branch.

Yujuico has submitted his resignation, but the company has yet to act on it. 

In previous Senate hearings, Yujuico’s name surfaced as the one who arranged a meeting between Deguito and other branch employees where money was allegedly offered to help cover up the anomaly. 

Earlier, RCBC submitted a report to the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) showing Yujuico’s photo, which was used to open a fictitious account in the name of “Jessie Lagrosas.” 

A friend of Deguito who is from another bank is also being investigated. 

Four individuals at RCBC – from the executive vice president down – are likewise being probed. 

“While there is no indication of criminal collusion, we are looking at possible lapses and errors in judgment,” Estavillo said. 

Sanctions range from written reprimand and even termination, it was reported.

Among those being investigated is Deguito’s immediate supervisor, district head Atoy Pineda, according to the ABS-CBN report. 

A third and independent investigation is being conducted on RCBC president Lorenzo Tan, now on leave.

The probe is expected to be completed late this week, while a special committee is set to meet next week. 

Former prime minister and current RCBC vice chairman Cesar Virata said he “is confident that RCBC will weather this crisis as the bank has enough resources to overcome the event.”

Part of $81 M still in Phl

A part of the $81 million stolen from the Bank of Bangladesh has been accounted for and is apparently still in the country, several senators said.

“It is therefore imperative for authorities to act swiftly and get hold of the money so that it could be returned to its rightful owner,” Sen. Paolo Benigno Aquino IV said.

The most important thing that must be done is to secure all the funds and give it back to the government of Bangladesh, Aquino said.

“I understand that the focus would be the Filipino actors who were part of this scam. But I think we should focus on securing the money, making sure it’s intact, and giving it back to the people of Bangladesh.”

Aquino also said Chinese junket operator Kam Sin Wong, alias Kim Wong, is not yet off the hook.

“As of now, we do not dismiss the possibility that maybe more people are involved. It would not be possible that only three people could get involved and set it off,” he said.

So far, the AMLC has filed charges against Deguito, Wong and a certain Weikang Xu.

“We should dig deeper and investigate this mess,” Aquino said.

“Can you imagine if that happened to the Philippines, if $81 million of our money was stolen elsewhere? The first thing we would want to ensure is that it gets back to our own treasury,” Aquino said.

He added that the least the government could do is let AMLC perform its function “and ensure that whatever money is found is held and eventually returned to Bangladesh.”

He urged the casinos involved to cooperate by checking on their own if any of the funds are still with them and to voluntarily turn these over “without going through a lengthy court procedure.”

“The AMLC said it is within the powers of the current laws to get the money and eventually file civil forfeiture cases against those involved. But I hope we don’t reach that. If the money is still there and if it can still be returned, we should return it at the soonest possible time,” he said.

He added the announcement of Solaire Resort and Casino Manila that they are willing to return some P59 million is a welcome development.

He also welcomed the announcement of Wong that he is willing to return some of the money deposited in his account.

Wong will still need to face charges even if he offered to return the remaining $4.63 million and P450 million, according to Aquino.

Wong received the money as payment from Beijing-based operator Gao Shu Hua, he said.

To avoid embarrassment from the international community, Aquino joined Sen. Ralph Recto in the call to recover about 40 percent or about $34 million of the $81-million loot.

“If Philippine authorities will only act swiftly, they may still recover more than 40 percent, about $34 million, of the $81 million that was stolen by hackers from Bangladesh Bank,” Recto said.

While the Senate Blue Ribbon committee is solving the puzzle, Recto urged law enforcement agencies to act swiftly to recover any portion of the loot still within the Philippines.

“There is a chance that we can recover $34 million if local authorities will zero in on the paper trail established during the Senate hearings,” he added.

Citing the testimony of Wong, Recto noted that $61 million of the $81 million went to the casinos.

Senate Blue Ribbon committee chairman Sen. Teofisto Guingona III said “a portion of the loot long considered gone and spirited away was effectively recovered” already.

Citing the testimony given by Wong last Tuesday, Guingona noted the junket operator is willing to return his share of the supposedly stolen funds, specifically $4.63 million currently in Solaire.

Wong said that he was also willing to return the P450 million out of the P1 billion that was paid to him by his junket agent, Chinese national Gao Shuhua.

According to Wong, he was not aware that the funds were part of the $81 million stolen from the Bank of Bangladesh. He said that he is willing to sell his properties to raise the amount.

Guingona noted another P107 million could also be recovered from Solaire, representing the funds of Gao’s associate, Ding Zhize, which were seized by the casino after learning about the heist.

Another P1.34 million in cash was also retrieved by Solaire from the rooms of Ding’s junket players after they left.

“Once Wong has handed in the $4.63 million cash, it’s up to the Central Bank and the Anti-Money Laundering Council to turn over the cash to the Bangladeshi authorities. We are able to return a certain amount which, presumably, would not have been unearthed had we not had these hearings,” Guingona said.

Under intense grilling from Recto, Wong admitted on Tuesday that only about $61 million of the $81-million cyber heist loot found its way to a Philippine casino.

About $17 million is still with Philrem Corp., the remittance firm responsible for transferring the stolen money from RCBC to different accounts and individuals.

Wong told the Senate hearing that he is ready to surrender to Philippine authorities the entire P450 million, or about $10 million, that his firm, Eastern Hawaii Leisure Co. Ltd., received as part of the supposed loot.

Wong admitted that a total of P1 billion went to his firm, but P550 million of the amount was given to casino players who lost in a baccarat game.

Aside from the $17 million allegedly with Philrem and the $10 million with Wong, Recto said almost $7 million of the stolen money had been traced and may be recovered from casino accounts.

Aquino, for his part, said there is a need to protect the country’s image to show that it does not tolerate money laundering.

Recto and Aquino shared the same concern that there is an obvious effort to protect Kim Wong in the controversy.

They wondered why Philrem owner Michael Bautista and his wife Salud did not mention Wong in the previous hearings.

Philrem has denied that it still holds the $17 million as claimed by Wong.

Salud Bautista earlier testified at the Senate that she delivered P600 million and $18 million to a Chinese named Weikang Xu. But Wong denied the money went to Xu, whom he claimed is not a patron of Solaire but a minor gamer at his junket operations in Midas Hotel.

Aquino said there are different versions of the story.

Wong said he would return $4.63 million in cash to a government watchdog if warranted.

Convoluted money trail

The different versions of the story unfolded after unidentified hackers infiltrated the computer systems of Bangladesh Bank in early February and tried to steal $951 million from an account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York it uses for international settlements.

Many attempted transfers were blocked, but $81 million ended up in casinos in Manila and with junket operators, and most of it has vanished.

Aquino reiterated his call to AMLC to ensure that all those involved will be covered by their investigation.

The Senate will just be here to check on the developments, he said.

As regards the two Chinese junket operators tagged by Wong as the ones who brought in the hot money, Aquino said the Senate would be summoning those mentioned by the other resource persons to explain their role in the controversy.

Wong also said Lorenzo Tan, the president on leave of the RCBC, has nothing to do with the money-laundering scheme.

Wong said he would vouch for the integrity of Tan, his long-time friend.

Aside from implicating the two Chinese casino high rollers, Wong implicated Deguito and the Bautistas of PhilRem as the ones who accommodated the two junket operators.

He pointed out Deguito was the one who did everything to facilitate the transfer of the money to fictitious dollar accounts at the RCBC Jupiter branch in Makati City and the subsequent release of such funds from this bank.

PhilRem, in turn, was the entity that had remitted the $81 million – in several tranches in either dollar or peso notes – to the two casino players, Wong said.

When Wong was asked earlier by Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile to comment on Deguito’s previous testimony that in one private party, Tan supposedly told her to take good care of Wong, he said this was not true.

Francis Lim, the legal counsel of Tan, said Wong’s exposé against Deguito and PhilRem and his statement clearing Tan of any involvement in the money laundering scheme proves that Deguito had unduly dragged Tan in this controversy in a “shrewd design” to muddle the issues in the ongoing Senate probe and “obscure her role as a principal player” in the heist.

Meanwhile, administration presidential candidate Manuel Roxas II warned the country’s weak Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA) could jeopardize remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and exporters’ revenues.

“This (money laundering) is a major issue – not just an issue for banks – but a major concern for ordinary Filipinos because if we’re tagged as a money laundering center by the international community, even OFW remittances will be jeopardized at they will be under close scrutiny,” Roxas said in Filipino.

The heightened scrutiny by foreign banks and institutions could result in delays in remittances, higher costs or even cancellation of transfers if they are found to be suspicious – even if they are not, he said.

He said the exporters, who receive payments from abroad, may also be affected if the AMLA remains to have loopholes and lead to the tarnishing of the country’s image.

“How can we let our economy grow when all remittances from abroad have to undergo two, three, four or five review processes by other countries because they’re not confident that we can watch over the entry and exit of money in our country?” Roxas asked.

He also wondered why the local banks reportedly did not act quickly on the alarm raised by the AMLC on the suspicions fund transfers.

“The money passed through our banking system. It did not parachute into the country, what did our regulators do? What did the banks do? What did the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas do when the transactions were detected?” Roxas said.

Senatorial candidate Valenzuela City Rep. Sherwin Gatchalian said he would push for the privatization of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) and the inclusion of casinos in the AMLA if he wins a seat in the Senate.

Gatchalian joined calls for the need to review the Pagcor charter, which allows it to be an operator and regulator of casinos at the same time.

“This is not only an issue of conflict of interest but an anomaly since Pagcor being an operator of casinos is the one regulating itself. In effect, Pagcor is competing with other casino operators in the country,” Gatchalian said in a statement. – Christina Mendez, Paolo Romero, Jess Diaz, Lawrence Agcaoili