Ex-securities worker behind P205-M tax diversion scam

A woman who used to work in the securities market was identified by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) yesterday as the alleged mastermind of the P205-million tax diversion scam recently uncovered at a Rizal branch of the Land Bank of the Philippines.

NBI director Reynaldo Wycoco, however, declined to reveal her identity.

The NBI has released an artist’s sketch of a certain Nelson Malaluan whom Artemio San Juan, arrested manager of the Landbank branch in Binangonan, Rizal, has tagged as his alleged contact at the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

Wycoco said Malaluan, described as aged 45 to 50 and having a Batangueño accent, could be a ranking member of a syndicate behind the diversion of corporate tax payments.

San Juan was charged with 17 alleged violations of the Anti-Money Laundering Act between February and June this year.

Investigation showed that San Juan allegedly failed to report a series of tax payments totaling over P4 million to the Anti-Money Laundering Council.

The BIR uncovered the anomaly in the course of its review of corporations which appeared to have stopped paying corporate taxes. It turned out that tax payments were deposited in three dummy accounts instead of being remitted to the BIR.

The depositing firms, probers said, were issued checks as supposed proof of their tax payments but these were found to have been falsified.