Chemical execs convicted for money laundering

MANILA, Philippines — The Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) obtained the conviction of a liaison officer and secretary to the president of a chemical trader-distributor who amassed P12 million over a four-year period.

Mel Georgie Racela, executive director of the AMLC Secretariat, said the body secured the conviction of Annabella Ylagan for 55 counts of money laundering before the Quezon City regional trial court.

Racela said the conviction was obtained with the help of the former employer of Ylagan in providing the evidence to convict her.

“We see here a kind of shared interest and cooperation between the AMLC and the company, which was very interested in seeing the case through. The AMLC is very committed to prosecuting money laundering as these convictions show. Crime does not pay, and should never be made to pay. Ylagan made a choice: amass wealth and use the banks to hide her wealth. Tarnishing the integrity of the financial system has a cost: Ylagan paid for it very dearly,” he said.

Ylagan is now serving her sentence at the Correctional Institute for Women.

A 56-page decision penned by Presiding Judge Caridad Walse-Lutero found Ylagan guilty beyond reasonable doubt for 55 counts of money laundering, and sentenced her to seven years imprisonment for each count.

The AMLC proved that Ylagan transferred funds from her employer’s accounts in three banks to a bank account she opened under fictitious bank accounts under the name Lourdes Liu and a company purportedly created by Ylagan.

Ylagan’s modus operandi that amassed P12 million over a four-year period involved routing of forged letters of authority, instructing banks to transfer funds from her employer’s accounts to her own fictitious accounts.

Ylagan’s illicit scheme was exposed when an account officer of the bank where her company maintained accounts phoned the company to verify a fund transfer in favor of one of her companies.

Because Ylagan was not at the office at the time, one of her colleagues took the call.

Eventually, it was discovered that the company never approved the transfers: there were no documents to back up the transfers. The company president was alerted, and investigations into Ylagan’s transactions were conducted.

Ylagan admitted in writing to executing the fund transfers and opening fictitious accounts.

The company promptly charged Ylagan for two separate crimes including qualified theft and qualified theft through falsification of private documents. The courts convicted Ylagan guilty as charged.