AMLC flags Chinese use of locals in opening bank accounts

MANILA, Philippines — The Anti-Money Laundering Council has warned banks to be more diligent in scrutinizing their clients after noticing an apparent trend of Chinese nationals using locals as fronts when opening accounts.

AMLC executive director Mel Georgie Racela told the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee yesterday there are increasing reports where Filipinos are being used by Chinese nationals to open bank accounts on their behalf.

“Account holders are being used and other Filipinos are being used to open bank accounts. It’s more of ‘I borrow your bank account case’,” Racela told the committee, chaired by Sen. Richard Gordon.

The AMLC executive later told reporters the council issued advisories to banks to be more careful in scrutinizing those seeking to open bank accounts.

The panel is conducting an inquiry into the smuggling of tons of methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu into the country through the Bureau of Customs (BOC) in the last two years with an estimated street value of nearly P20 billion.

The panel has formally asked the AMLC to look into the bank accounts of certain Chinese nationals, including one who has fled the country, after paying lease to a warehouse in Cavite where four empty magnetic lifters were recovered by operatives from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the BOC last August.

The magnetic lifters are suspected to have been emptied of as much as a ton of shabu as the same type of lifters were recovered at the Manila International Container Port that same month.

A Chinese national, identified as Hsu Chun Chung, used checks from his account in BDO in paying the lease in the warehouse.

Racela gave a written report to Gordon on the committee’s request on specific bank accounts, but it was not made public.  

An executive session between Gordon and AMLC officials is being set. 

“I’m aware of a racket going on right now where Chinese folks are opening bank accounts arranged by agents who have ACR, alien certificate of registration, and the banks are cooperating to open accounts without knowing their customers,” Gordon said during the hearing.

The committee wrapped up its probe and Gordon said he was likely to recommend the filing of drug trafficking charges, and other offenses against several individuals allegedly involved in the shabu smuggling.

Among those likely to be recommended to be charged are former PDEA deputy director Ismael Fajardo, dismissed Philippine National Police Supt. Eduardo Acierto, and the owners of at least two private firms that acted as consignees for the magnetic lifters.

Acierto and Fajardo have apparently gone missing after failing to attend several hearings of the committees despite being cited for contempt.

PDEA chief Aaron Aquino said he has removed Fajardo from his post last Sept. 13, and the latter filed his resignation last Nov. 30.

Acierto along with other PNP officials was dismissed by the Office of the Ombudsman last August in connection with the anomalous issuance of licenses for AK-47 rifles from 2011 to 2013.