William Go allows scrutiny of dollar account

MANILA, Philippines - Businessman William Go has waived his rights under the bank secrecy law over his alleged accounts at the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) Jupiter branch in Makati to prove his innocence in connection with the accounts used in the laundering of $81 million stolen by hackers from the Bank of Bangladesh.

RCBC legal counsel Maria Cecilia Estavillo said that Go has allowed the bank to check the questioned dollar account in the Jupiter branch without prejudice to his defense that he does not own the account.

On this basis, Estavillo told the second hearing of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee chaired by Sen. Teofisto Guingona III yesterday that the bank was able to establish that Go’s signatures were forged and that the addresses listed in the bank forms were actually false.  

Prior to this, the Esguerra and Blanco law offices, which represent Go, had written the RCBC on Wednesday that their client has no reason to object to the call for RCBC to reveal details regarding the questionable accounts.

“Our client Mr. William S. Go, reiterates categorically that the RCBC accounts under his name with your Jupiter branch subject of the current Senate investigation are not his,” the law firm said. “Nonetheless, if you enable the RCBC to answer the questions in the investigation regarding these accounts, Mr. Go does not interpose any objection to RCBC’s disclosure of any matter or information in connection with said questionable accounts,” it added.

“The foregoing should not be taken, however, as an admission on the part of Mr. Go of the ownership of the subject accounts. “Consistent with our letter 1 March 2016 to RCBC demanding an explanation how and why these accounts were opened which, as you know, was without his knowledge and participation, Mr. Go reserves all his rights and remedies under the law to institute the appropriate legal actions against all concerned,” Go’s lawyers said.

Go, the Chinese-Filipino businessman to whom the amount was reportedly transferred before the money was laundered in local casinos, had earlier claimed that he did not open any account at the RCBC Jupiter branch.

RCBC officials also testified before the Senate yesterday that Go’s signatures were forged when a P20-million withdrawal was made from the dollar account last Feb. 9.  

The P20-million withdrawal was part of at least $44 million that passed through the purported Go bank accounts and later transferred to remittance company Philrem, and then laundered through four casinos in Manila.

These amounts were all part of the $81-million illegal transfer of funds from a Bangladesh bank through local banks.

RCBC has sought the expertise of a private agency in connection with its ongoing internal investigation on the matter.

“Based on the findings mentioned above and with a ‘reasonable degree of certainty,’ I hereby conclude that the Questioned Signatures worked as QS-1 to QS-1, inclusive and the Standard Signatures were not executed by one and the same person, Mr. William S. Go,” read the report of Catherine Aquino, registered criminologist and a questioned document examiner of the Truth Verifier Systems Inc.

“Hence, it is a result of a SIMULATED FORGERY,” Aquino said in the same report, a copy of which was obtained by The STAR.

The handwriting expert examined the specimen signatures of Go from the RCBC signature card, Secretary’s Certificate, RCBC Customer Relationship Form [Corporate-2 copies] and RCBC Customer Relationship Form – Retail. 

These were compared to the “questioned specimen,” Go’s signatures found on the withdrawal slip for P20 million drawn out of RCBC Jupiter branch bank last Feb. 9 under the supervision of branch manager Maia Santos-Deguito.

Go and his lawyers also asserted that the freeze order against Centurytex’s bank accounts with East West and BDO, and all other related accounts, was issued without probable case and is a violation of the Anti Money Laundering Act (AMLA). 

Go reiterated that these accounts were neither proceeds of, nor in any way connected to, any unlawful activity.

Violation of due process, privacy

In another development, Go’s counsels argued that the freeze order issued by the Anti Money Laundering Council (AMLC) against Go and Centurytex’s East West Bank and Banco de Oro accounts, including other related accounts, violates Go’s constitutional right to due process and right to privacy.

“The indiscriminate and sweeping application for, and subsequent issuance of, a Freeze Order against all bank accounts owned by Centurytex and Mr. Go, without determining which accounts, if any, were related to an illicit transaction or unlawful activity, amounts to an unlawful deprivation of Mr. Go’s personal property, in violation of his constitutional right to due process,” the petition read.

In a March 10 petition filed before the Court of Appeals, Go’s lawyers are seeking the lifting of the freeze order against Go and Centurytex Trading’s accounts with East West Bank and Banco de Oro and other related accounts.

Meanwhile, former justice secretary Leila de Lima said RCBC officials could not invoke the bank secrecy law in refusing to open the bank accounts tagged in the $81-million money laundering controversy.

De Lima said the Senate Blue Ribbon committee should not accept the argument of RCBC president Lorenzo Tan that the bank cannot submit records of the four fictitious accounts where the $80,884,641.63 stolen by hackers from the Bangladesh Bank went because of the bank secrecy law.

“Any invocation of the bank secrecy law in the Senate hearing by the RCBC is wrong or misplaced because there is no real depositor here, and the deposit is fraudulent. People may have missed this fine legal point,” she explained to The STAR yesterday.

De Lima said neither could trader Go invoke the same law in asking the Court of Appeals (CA) to lift the freeze order it issued on his accounts.

The Department of Justice (DOJ), meanwhile, is set to issue today a subpoena on RCBC’s Deguito in its preliminary investigation on the money laundering charges filed against her and four others by the AMLC.

The subpoena signed by investigating Assistant State Prosecutor Gilmarie Fe Pacamarra will require Deguito to answer the complaint for violation of Section 4 of the AMLA.  With Edu Punay, Prinz Magtulis, Marvin Sy