DOJ summons Deguito in money launder case

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Justice (DOJ) yesterday summoned Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) branch manager Maia Santos-Deguito to its preliminary investigation on the money laundering charges filed against her and four others by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).

In a two-page subpoena, investigating Assistant State Prosecutor Gilmarie Fe Pacamarra required Deguito to appear before the DOJ on April 12 and 19 at 10 a.m.

The prosecutor ordered Deguito to answer AMLC’s complaint for violation of Section 4 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act.

Also ordered to appear for the preliminary investigation are the four people behind the aliases Michael Francisco Cruz, Jessie Christopher Lagrosas, Alfred Santos Vergara and Enrico Teodoro Vasquez.

They are the supposed owners of bank accounts where the $80,884,641.63 stolen from the Bank of Bangladesh by hackers went.

Pacamarra issued a separate subpoena to AMLC officials, who were also required to attend the hearing.

In its nine-page complaint, AMLC deputy director Vincent Salido sought the indictment of Deguito and the four others for allegedly facilitating the laundering of stolen money.

Chinese-Filipino businessman William Go, to whom the amount was reportedly transferred before the money was laundered in local casinos, was not included among the respondents.

The AMLC has accused Deguito, manager of the bank’s branch on Jupiter Street in Makati City, of facilitating the act of money laundering when she “allowed the opening of the subject bank accounts on May 15, 2015 based on identity documents that were verified to be fictitious.”

Aside from having failed to perform her responsibility of verifying the identities of the four depositors within nine months from the time the accounts were opened, Deguito allowed them to withdraw the stolen money from Bangladesh Bank, the AMLC said.

Deguito has denied the allegation in the complaint.

She also denied approaching Go or offering him P10 million in exchange for keeping his silence.

She said all the transactions in her branch had the approval of RCBC president Lorenzo Tan.

Deguito claimed the bank officials, to evade criminal liability, used her as a scapegoat.

The controversy is currently also being investigated by the Senate Blue Ribbon committee.  

A member of the committee, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III, said it might take more hearings for the Senate to identify all the major players in the money-laundering scheme.

Pimentel said there are at least four people and a firm that were locally involved.

“I doubt if a mere branch manager can pull this off or set this up. The branch manager has a day job that should keep her busy enough,” Pimentel said in a forum held at Clark Freeport in Pampanga.

“I need more hearings, perhaps three, to pinpoint the mastermind or for me to identify at least a set from where a mastermind can be picked,” he said.

Pimentel lamented the lack of full cooperation from RCBC where the $81 million landed after it was remitted through Philrem Service Corp. 

RCBC had served as the conduit for the passage of the money stolen from the Bangladesh Bank’s account in the Federal Reserve Bank in New York.

“The impact is on the reputation of our banks in the country,” he said.

The key player

Senators want to dig deeper into the involvement of Chinese businessman Kam Sin Wong, alias Kim Wong, in the banking heist.

“There was an orchestrator and that looks like that is Kim Wong,”  said Sen. Sergio Osmeña III.

Deguito, the RCBC branch manager at the center of the $81-million bank heist and money laundering case, dealt directly with the mysterious Chinese-Filipino businessman Kim Wong in the opening of the bogus accounts that took in the funds up to the transfer of the money to various recipients.

After an executive session with the senators last Thursday, Deguito disclosed the four accounts in her branch under the names of Michael Cruz, Jessie Lagrosas, Alfred Vergara and Enrico Vasquez were referred to her by Wong.

The four accounts, which were opened in May of 2015, were used to receive the $81 million that was allegedly stolen by hackers from the account of the Bank of Bangladesh in the Federal Reserve Bank in New York.

Deguito said she was introduced to Wong in 2009 by a common client, Jason Go, a dealer in used luxury cars.

She also claimed RCBC president and CEO Lorenzo Tan is close to both Wong and Go.

Sources disclosed Deguito met with Wong sometime in May of 2015 when she was introduced to five individuals who were his incorporators for a new corporation he was creating.

Four of the five were the holders of the four accounts. It was not clear who was the fifth individual.

These accounts contained the minimum maintaining balance of $500 each and remained dormant until Feb. 5 this year when the $81 million was transferred.

Apart from the dollar accounts, Wong also opened peso accounts for the same five individuals with zero balances.

On Feb. 5, Deguito said Wong called her up to check on the money transfers to the five accounts. Only four of the five accounts ended up receiving funds.

During her conversations with Wong, Deguito was told that Tan was aware of the transactions.

Deguito said she was not promised any money in exchange for her participation in the transactions.

It was reported that eventually, $66 million from the four accounts were withdrawn and deposited to the dollar account of businessman William Go, who has denied ownership of the account.

Deguito has claimed that Go and Wong know each other, something which was also denied by Go.

Blue Ribbon chairman Sen. Teofisto Guingona III expressed belief that Deguito is not the most guilty in this issue.

“It seems right now that she was, to say the least, negligent, but there are bigger persons behind this whole thing and names are coming out already,” Guingona said.

“Kim Wong came out prominently,” he added.

Asked to assessed Deguito’s demeanor as a resource person, Guingona gave credence to her despite efforts by top RCBC executives to pin her down.

“It is an eye opener, and at least we know, according to her story, we have to vet it with other testimonies, we know... it seems from her story, I want to emphasize, it seems that she was just used and there is a prime mover for all of this,” he added.

Guingona believed the “prime mover” of the scheme is here in the Philippines.

Sen. Vicente Sotto III also expressed belief that Deguito was not working alone in this scam.

“I want to know how deep the role of the personalities mentioned by the bank manager on this anomaly is,” Sotto said. “Because a banker once told me that in the banking industry, the lion does not eat alone.”

While Deguito plays a substantial role in withdrawing all the hot cash and diverting them to at least four fictitious accounts at RCBC, Osmeña said there are other major players in the bank heist, dubbed as one of the biggest cyber hacks in history.

“Yes, she is the one of the many participants,” Osmeña added.

“Well, (Deguito is a) semi-major (player) but not the major (one),” he said.

“There are missing links which we hope she will give permission to us in the future so we can include it in our committee report. There are shadowy areas here.”

Ties that bind

Separate sources revealed that Wong could have known that the huge cash flow was coming in, which is why he tapped his contacts in the banking industry, including Tan, the RCBC president.

Tan, Wong and car trader Jason Go – whose name was floated by Guingona during Thursday’s hearing – were said to be close friends.

Apart from Tan, Kim Wong and Jason Go, an affluent politician is also being tagged in the scandal but his name has not been mentioned in the Senate hearings, sources said.

The sources have not discounted the possibility that some of the hot money could be used to beef up the resources of a preferred candidate in the May 9 elections.

The local politician reportedly convinced Tan to help them in getting out the multimillion-dollar cash transactions last month.

Since the “heist” has been in the works for the past year, sources said the group tapped Deguito, with whom the players had long bank relationships prior to the operation.

Deguito has also been enjoying perks and the good graces of these prominent businessmen who have become her valued clients, the sources added.

“Deguito was used in the process since she has been given preferential treatment during their (other) bank deals, she was the manager of choice,” an official said.

“Kim Wong and his friends could not just be waiting for the money to come in. Considering the huge amounts involved, he could be a mastermind or one of those in the know,” another source told The STAR.

Wong was not able to attend last Thursday’s hearing on the issue because, according to his lawyer Victor Fernandez, he was seeking medical treatment in Singapore.

Fernandez said Wong will not be back until March 28 and as soon as he arrives he will attend the hearing of the committee.

Because of her revelations about the various personalities allegedly involved in the issue, particularly Wong, Deguito has aired concern about her safety, as well as that of her family.

Deguito’s lawyer Ferdinand Topacio said his client is now under the protection of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption.

According to Topacio, Deguito has been suspended by RCBC as a result of the controversy.

He said Deguito wanted to secure some documents to support her claims against Tan and the other individuals but was prevented from doing so.

Topacio aired his concern that Tan, using his influence as president and CEO of the bank, could erase the trail and exert pressure on the other employees of the bank to go against Deguito.

At the very least, Topacio said that Tan should have gone on leave while the issue is under investigation.

He said Tan should follow the example of the central bank governor of Bangladesh who resigned over the heist.

Topacio also raised his doubts about RCBC coming out with a fair investigation when the head of its legal department, Ma. Celia Fernandez-Estavillo, used to be with the Angara Abello Concepcion Regala and Cruz Law Offices or ACCRA, the same firm that is representing Tan.

On the other hand, overseas Filipino workers advocate Susan Ople said various migrant workers groups are preparing a petition asking the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) to conduct a thorough investigation into the financial transactions of Philrem on allegations the remittance services firm is a front for money laundering operations.  – With Marvin Sy, Christina Mendez, Ding Cervantes, Evelyn Macairan