DOJ orders AMLC to answer Kim Wong plea

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Justice (DOJ) has ordered the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) to answer the pleading of businessman Kam Sin Wong alias Kim Wong for the dismissal of money laundering charges against him in connection with the $80.9 million stolen by hackers from the Bangladesh Bank and laundered in the country.

Investigating Assistant State Prosecutor Gilmarie Fe Pacamarra has directed AMLC to file its reply to the counter-affidavit submitted by Wong last May 31 denying the criminal charges filed by the council.

The prosecutor gave the council until June 16 to comply with the order.

Wong, a casino junket operator, claimed he did not violate Section 4 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act, adding that he has already returned to the government P38.28 million and $4.63 million he got from the laundered money.

He stood by his statements in the Senate inquiry that it was former Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. branch manager Maia Santos-Deguito who facilitated the transactions.

The other casino junket operator named respondent in the AMLC complaint, Weikang Xu has not appeared before DOJ for the preliminary investigation hearings.

Deguito had formally denied the charges and filed with the prosecutor her counter-affidavit also last month. She asked the DOJ to dismiss the charges for lack of probable cause.

Dequito denied the allegation that she facilitated the laundering of the stolen money, insisting that it was former RCBC president Lorenzo Tan who ordered her to open the four fictitious accounts where the $80,884,641.63 stolen by hackers from the Bangladesh Bank went.

The former manager of the bank’s branch on Jupiter Street in Makati City stressed all the transactions in her branch had the approval of Tan, claiming that she is only being used as a scapegoat by bank officials to avoid criminal liability.