Wong returns another P200 M

MANILA, Philippines – Casino junket agent Kim Wong has turned over another P200 million to the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).

The amount was part of the $81 million stolen by hackers from the Bangladesh Bank last February and laundered in Manila in the same month.

At yesterday’s Senate Blue Ribbon committee hearing on the issue, AMLC executive director Julia Bacay-Abad said Wong’s Eastern Hawaii Leisure Co. Ltd. turned over P200 million last Monday for “safekeeping.”

Kristoffer James Purisima, one of Wong’s legal counsels, turned over the amount to the AMLC Monday afternoon.

The amount was part of the P450 million received by Wong from casino junket operator Gao Shuhua as payment for his casino losses.

Wong earlier committed to return the entire amount within 15 to 30 days on top of the P38.28 million and $4.63 million abandoned by Gao and earlier turned over to the AMLC for safekeeping.

For his part, Wong said he would try his best to surrender the remaining P250 million within the month.

Wong’s lawyers earlier cautioned AMLC against immediately turning over the surrendered cash to the Bangladesh government.

In a letter dated April 5, Wong’s lawyers questioned AMLC’s position to have the funds in its custody immediately returned to the Bangladesh government.

Wong submitted the legal opinion of his lawyers on the issue to Senate Blue Ribbon committee chair Teofisto Guingona III.

“The stand of the AMLC is fundamentally erroneous, procedurally infirm and grossly contrary to law,” Wong’s lawyers said in their legal opinion.

The lawyers said the AMLC had originally wanted Wong to issue a waiver and directly return to Bangladesh $4.63 million and P38.28 million. It was only upon prodding from Guingona that AMLC changed its tune and decided to follow its own rules.

While Wong has no objections to returning the money to its rightful owners, his counsels have advised him that any turnover should be in accordance with Philippine laws.

“Before any money or property can be turned over and/or delivered to its rightful owner, AMLC should file before a court... a verified ex parte petition for forfeiture,” Wong’s lawyers said, citing Section 12 and 17 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA).

Bangladesh intervention

Abad, for her part, said the government of Bangladesh should intervene in the petition for civil forfeiture, otherwise the amount would be declared as public money and forfeited in favor of the Filipino people.

She added they filed a petition for civil forfeiture against Wong before the Manila regional trial court last April 15 as the initial step to facilitate the return of a portion of the stolen funds to Bangladesh.

Abad said the petition also seeks the issuance of an asset preservation order on Wong’s bank accounts amounting to about P15 million covered by a freeze order issued by the Court of Appeals (CA) last March 1 as well as on the money he turned over to AMLC.

She pointed out the lower court has already issued an asset preservation order on assets in the name of Wong, including the $4.63 million and P38.28 million abandoned funds of Gao.

The order is valid for 20 days and the lower court would set a summary hearing to determine whether to make the asset preservation order permanent.

She clarified the order does not cover the P200 million turned over Monday by Wong’s Eastern Hawaii Lesiure Co. Ltd. 

According to her, AMLC would file more petitions for civil forfeiture cases. “We will do this by batch,” she added.

The AMLC executive director explained the process would take at least three months to complete.

She explained that under the rule on civil forfeiture, any person or party with claim on an amount forfeited should file a verified petition with the same court that rendered the order of forfeiture.

“So in other words, the Bangladesh government that has a claim on the money being forfeited should file appropriate verified petition and the court will issue another order directing the turnover of money to the proper claimant,” she added.

The AMLC has filed criminal charges for violation of the AMLA against Wong, Weikang Xu, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Jupiter Street branch manager Maia Santos-Deguito as well as John Does including Michael Francis Cruz, Jessie Christopher Lagrosas, Alfred Santos Vergara and Enrico Teodoro Vasquez.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) gave Wong two more weeks to prepare and present his counter-affidavit upon his lawyer’s request.

The preliminary investigation on his case has been reset to May 3.

Wong and Xu were supposed to attend the 10 a.m. preliminary investigation yesterday.

DOJ prosecutor Gilmarie Fe Pacamara said they would leave it up to the AMLC to locate Xu.

State witness

Deguito, through lawyer Ferdinand Topacio, said she is ready to reveal more if she is taken in as state witness.

But her bid to be admitted as a state witness is likely to face rough sailing as she admitted at yesterday’s Senate hearing that she lied about information she gave to her superiors regarding some dubious accounts.

Topacio told reporters she was “clearly a victim of manipulation by someone” in RCBC.

“This money laundering on such a huge scale would not be possible without participation of RCBC officials and certain bankers and businessmen,” Topacio stressed. “My client is too small to create such a mess.”

He said Deguito had disclosed in an executive session with senators the involvement of a group in the scandal. He did not elaborate.

Deguito yesterday admitted she was lying when she informed the RCBC head office that it was a certain Jessie Christopher Lagrosas who gave her instructions regarding the fictitious accounts.

“I acknowledge that I lied to my head office. At the time I submitted my affidavit to RCBC, I was not ready to say who I was dealing with,” she told the panel.

The other accounts that served as conduits to the laundering of the $81 million were in the names of Michael Francis Cruz, Alfred Santos Vergara and Enrico Teodoro Vasquez.

She said it was Wong who gave her instructions on the accounts, including their conversion to peso as well as their transfer to the account of businessman William Go.

She also admitted sending specimen signature cards to Wong for the opening of the peso deposit accounts.

“I met depositors through Kim Wong. Kim Wong stood as their representative,” she added.

Wong denied instructing Deguito to transfer funds to Go’s accounts.

RCBC lawyer Macel Fernandez-Estavillo said Deguito’s action was “not allowed” and “there are no documents to support her claim.”  

RCBC fired Deguito together with Angela Torres last March 22 for violating bank policies and procedures as well as for the falsification of commercial documents used in the opening of the accounts used in the money laundering scandal.

Estavillo said bank branch managers are very powerful as they act as chief executive officer of the branch.

“Looking back, I would have made sure that bank manager will not be given so much power. Bank manager is the CEO of the branch,” she added.

Estavillo was reacting to Deguito’s testimony before the committee that it was not her duty to file the suspicious transactions report (STR) on the accounts.

Deguito was reportedly instructed by the RCBC head office to file the STR on Feb. 5 but the report was filed with the AMLC on Feb. 10.

She said she had not filed any STR over the past three years.

Deguito has implicated RCBC president on leave Lorenzo Tan, saying the bank president was aware of the transactions.

Estavillo also reiterated that Deguito is not qualified as a state witness.

“I can’t understand how she can qualify as a state witness, you have to be the least guilty party and it appears she really knows the most in this whole group,” she said.

The RCBC lawyer said Deguito has been “peddling a lot of lies from the start to the bank and even in the committee. I do not know anymore if what she is saying is true or not.”

Xu mystery

After weeks of Senate hearing, Xu’s role – or even his existence – has remained a mystery.

Xu has been repeatedly named by Philrem Service Corp. owners Salud and Michael Bautista as the person who received the $81 million coursed through their company allegedly upon RCBC’s instructions.

Wong has refuted the Bautistas’ claim.

Salud Bautista insisted that it was Xu who was the recipient of the P90 million and $500,000 that she delivered to the Solaire casino last Feb. 5 and that she even received a copy of his passport, which she submitted to the Senate Blue Ribbon committee.

She said Wong was present during that meeting in Solaire and that he served as interpreter.

Philrem’s messenger Mark Palmares, who failed to attend the previous hearings, finally appeared yesterday and testified about the cash deliveries he made.

He said he was instructed to deliver to the Solaire casino P90 million and $500,000 last Feb. 5.

He said the cash was placed inside one large luggage, a traveler’s bag and a shoulder bag, which he delivered to his bosses Salud and Michael Bautista’s VIP room at the casino.

From Feb. 9 to 13, Palmares said he made several cash deliveries to the residence of the Bautistas totaling P510 million and $17.5 million, all for pick up by Xu.

Fake affidavit

Curiously, the lawyer who notarized the affidavit submitted by Palmares, Renato de Jesus, denied any involvement in the preparation of the affidavit.

De Jesus told the committee he had never met Palmares before and that his signature on the affidavit was forged.

If Xu was indeed the recipient of the stolen funds as claimed by Philrem, it would be very difficult to get any confirmation as his whereabouts remain unknown to authorities.

Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile presented a letter of Department of Foreign Affairs undersecretary Rafael Seguis to the Blue Ribbon committee stating that the consulate general based in Chongqing, China has not issued any visa to Xu.

Committee chairman Guingona revealed that the Bureau of Immigration (BI) has filed a report to the body regarding its records on Xu.

In a letter to the committee, BI commissioner Ronaldo Geron said that Xu first entered the country on March 18, 2015.

He left the country on March 24, 2015 and returned on April 1. Geron said the BI granted Xu a temporary visitor visa.

“It appears that Xu is still in the Philippines,” Guingona said, quoting Geron.

At Malacañang, Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr.  said the administration fully supports all legal initiatives and processes to ensure the integrity of all banking and financial transactions in the Philippines.

 “The Anti-Money Laundering Council has primary responsibility for determining if there has been violations of the Anti-Money Laundering Act. The AMLC then conveys its findings to the Department of Justice or to the Office of the Ombudsman, which then takes on the responsibility of assessing whether there is probable cause for the filing of charges,” Coloma said. – With Marvin Sy, Aurea Calica, Evelyn Macairan, Ghio Ong, Christina Mendez