Heads are rolling in at least four Philippine banks amid a hacking and money-laundering scandal involving at least USD81-million, and foreign observers say this could damage the clean and corruption-free image of the Aquino government.
Suspected Chinese hackers reportedly stole nearly USD100-million from Bangladesh’s foreign exchange account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on Feb 5, though the US reserve bank denies its systems were breached.
A source from the Bangladesh Central Bank, speaking anonymously, told Bloomberg that “US$20 million of a US$101 million total had been recovered from an account held in Sri Lanka, leaving US$81 million unaccounted for.”
Well, not exactly.
Philippine media reports that the missing USD81 million was coursed to a Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation branch in Makati City.
“The transaction was allegedly handled by one of its branch managers with foreign exchange broker Philrem. The funds were then converted to pesos, consolidated into a single corporate account of a Chinese-Filipino businessman and then used to either ‘buy chips’ or ‘pay for casino losses’ incurred at several casinos before being moved back to bank accounts overseas,” reports RG Cruz on ABS-CBNnews.com.
“The Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) is now investigating six persons for possible involvement in the cross-border electronic fraud and money-laundering scheme. Five of them have bank accounts at RCBC, which were the same ones used by what is believed to be an international syndicate to move money to the local financial system,” reports Doris Dumlao-Abadilla in Philippine Daily Inquirer.
“The AMLC identified Michael Francisco Cruz, Jessie Christopher Lagrosas, Alfred Santos Vergara, Enrico Teodoro Vasquez, William So Go, and Kam Sin Wong (Kim Wong) as those who may be involved in the money-laundering scheme,” it said.
In light of this development, the report indicated that “the Court of Appeals (CA) has already ordered four banks (RCBC, East West Bank, Banco de Oro, and Philippine National Bank) to freeze for the next six months the bank accounts and all related accounts of the six individuals.” The CA had also noted that “Cruz, Lagrosas, Vergara, Vasquez, and Go had ‘no known source of income that could justify the several huge financial transactions.'”
Meanwhile, various reports have identified the casinos involved as City of Dreams, Midas, and Solaire. They will be subjected to a probe by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR).
The bank that has been mentioned most in the case is, needless to say, undergoing some tension.
On Thu, Mar 10, RCBC President and CEO Lorenzo Tan issued a statement denying the allegation of Maia Santos-Deguito, business manager of the bank’s Jupiter Street branch in Makati City, that he played a role in the opening and subsequent use of the banks accounts allegedly used in money laundering.
Tan sent his statement to the Philippine Daily Inquirer. In it, he said, “I do not know (Maia Santos-Deguito) personally, which raises the question: ‘How can a branch manager work with a bank president who does not know her on branch level matters? As president of RCBC, I do not engage myself in the opening of accounts, knowing the client and his source of income among other things as required by government rules, and crediting and debiting funds.”
Tan continued, “The branch manager oversees these things. I did not refer anyone to her for the opening of accounts even. I did not handpick Ms. Deguito. She was recommended by a friend, which is normally done everywhere. She went through the same vetting process before she was hired in late 2013. If I did not know her personally, how can I provide her guidance on how to answer a memo from management asking her to explain everything that is now coming out in the media in a level of detail that I could not have been familiar with as CEO?”
For now, Senate Committee on Banks Chairman Serge Osmeña said the Senate will probe allegations of money laundering through Philippine casinos next week. He said while no resolution has been filed, the Senate can call for a probe so long as no one objects.
