AMLC sues Philrem for money laundering

MANILA, Philippines - The Anti-Money Laundering Council on Thursday filed charges against officers of Philippine Remittance Co. (Philrem) for its alleged involvement in laundering $81 million stolen by hackers from the Bangladesh central bank.

The council filed a joint complaint-affidavit against Salud Bautista, Michael Bautista and Anthony Pelejo for violating Republic Act 9160 or the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2001.

This is the third complaint filed before the Department of Justice in connection with the cyber heist of funds from Bangladesh.

READ: DOJ begins probe on $81-million money laundering

The first complaint was against former RCBC branch manager Maia Santos-Deguito and four other respondents who were the supposed owners of bank accounts where the funds from the Bank of Bangladesh were reportedly wired.

The second case was against businessmen Kam Sin Wong (Kim Wong) and Weikang Xu. Wong allegedly laundered about $21.6 million while some $59.2 million went to Xu.

The DOJ has started its preliminary investigation into the money laundering charges in the first two cases.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue, meanwhile, has filed tax evasion charges against Philrem for its "willful" non-payment of gross receipts and percentage taxes from 2005 to 2014 amounting to P35.61 million.

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