MANILA, Philippines — On trial for plunder in connection with the pork barrel fund scam, detained businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles is facing another criminal case along with some family members – this time in the United States – for allegedly laundering some $20 million in public funds.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra confirmed yesterday that Napoles, her children Jo Christine, James Christopher and Jeane Catherine; her brother Reynaldo and his wife Ana Marie have been indicted by a federal grand jury for conspiracy to commit money laundering, domestic money laundering and international money laundering.
“We have been collaborating with the US Department of Justice on these money laundering charges against Napoles. We welcome this development, as it paves the way for the return of the people’s money to our national treasury,” Guevarra told reporters.
With Napoles’ indictment in the US, Guevarra said he expects the federal justice department to move for her extradition to the US to stand trial.
“But until the case against Napoles in the Philippines has been resolved and terminated, we cannot extradite her to the US,” he explained.
Napoles, currently detained at the Camp Bagong Diwa detention center in Taguig City, is on trial for five counts of plunder, graft and other cases before the Sandiganbayan.
The DOJ chief explained that only her co-accused who are not facing any case in the Philippines could be extradited to the US.
“If we receive a request for extradition and they are here, we will commence the necessary proceedings,” Guevarra said.
Combo photo published by ABS-CBN News in 2013 shows Jeane Catherine Napoles’ Instagram posts of her Porsche Boxster and Porsche Cayenne.
He stressed the Philippine government is ready to cooperate with the US government for the prosecution of the money laundering case against Napoles and some members of her family.
The money laundering case stemmed from activities of the defendants from September 2012 to August 2014.
“The DOJ will extend all assistance to its US counterpart, ensuring that our people’s money is returned in due time to our national treasury,” he added.
In a statement, the US Department of Justice said the indicted individuals, as well as around 20 lawmakers and other government officials, had “converted to their own benefit millions of dollars in Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and transmitted approximately $20 million from that scheme into the US to purchase assets, including real property and luxury vehicles.” PDAF is how congressional pork barrel is officially called.
The fraudulently converted money was reportedly paid to “dozens of non-governmental organizations” controlled by Napoles that were supposed to implement development projects.
“Instead, the money was diverted to kickbacks for the legislators and other government officials, and for the personal use of the Napoles family,” it said.
Also in a statement, the US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said the funds were diverted to money remitters in the Philippines and then wired to Southern California bank accounts, “where the money was used to purchase real estate, shares in two businesses, two Porsche Boxsters and finance the living expenses of three family members residing in the United States: Jeane Napoles, Reynald Lim and Ana Lim.”
In August 2013, Philippine authorities arrested Napoles and froze her family’s local bank accounts.
Napoles and her family members attempted to quietly liquidate their assets in the US and secretly repatriate most of the resulting funds back to the Philippines and to other accounts in the US and United Kingdom, and disburse some of the funds to Jeane Napoles, who used the money to finance her lifestyle and open a fashion business.
“Even after Janet Napoles made a highly publicized statement admitting that she had bribed Philippine legislators in connection with these ‘ghost projects,’ the defendants attempted to convert the proceeds of this crime to their own use,” said US Attorney Nick Hanna.
“The efforts of the Philippine and American investigators demonstrate that there are consequences to abusing the public trust and we hope to deter such conduct in the future. To do this, we will work with our Philippine counterparts to secure the extradition of the defendants to the United States,” he added.
Court documents showed approximately $12.5 million in Southern California real estate asset seized by the US Attorney’s Office and is subject to a civil forfeiture case pending before US District Judge James Selna.
If the court orders the assets forfeited, the US will work with Philippine officials for the return of the stolen funds back to the Philippine government.
In their investigation of the case, US authorities said they received substantial assistance from the Philippines’ DOJ, Office of the Ombudsman, Anti-Money Laundering Council and the Commission on Audit. The cooperation was in accordance with the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty between the Philippines and the US. Assistant US Attorney Daniel O’Brien, deputy chief of the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section, is lead prosecutor of the case.
The STAR tried to get comments from Napoles’ lawyer Stephen David but he did not answer calls or texts.
Earlier, he urged authorities to give Napoles a chance “to divulge all that she knows” about the multibillion-peso pork barrel scam.
“She has always been willing to divulge all that she knows about the PDAF scam, but the previous administration did not want to listen to her because some of its allies will be implicated. But this new (Duterte) administration is fair and wants to know the whole truth about the PDAF scam,” David said in an earlier interview with reporters.
When he was DOJ chief, Vitaliano Aguirre III placed Napoles under provisional coverage of the Witness Protection Program (WPP) but this was withdrawn in May by his successor Guevarra, who said it had become “moot” after the Sandiganbayan rejected her plea to be transferred to DOJ custody.
Then ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales had said special prosecutors would block any move to utilize Napoles as state witness in the existing pork scam cases.
“As far as the prosecution is concerned, she (Napoles) is one of the principal alleged malefactor [in the scam]. Certainly the OSP (Office of the Special Prosecutor) will block any attempt to make her a state witness,” Morales said. – Wtih Elizabeth Marcelo