DOJ begins probe on $81-million money laundering

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Justice (DOJ) starts tomorrow its preliminary probe on the money laundering charges against Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) branch manager Maia Santos-Deguito stemming from the $80.9 million stolen by hackers from the Bangladesh Bank.

Deguito has been summoned to the preliminary hearing at 10 a.m. before investigating assistant state prosecutor Gilmarie Fe Pacamarra.

In an earlier subpoena, Deguito was ordered to answer the complaint for violating Section 4 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act filed last month by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).

Also ordered to appear at the DOJ are the four unidentified persons behind the aliases Michael Francisco Cruz, Jessie Christopher Lagrosas, Alfred Santos Vergara and Enrico Teodoro Vasquez, the supposed owners of the bank accounts where the $80,884,641.63 stolen by hackers went.

AMLC officials were also required to attend the hearing.

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

The AMLC said that aside from the fact that Deguito failed to verify the identities of the four depositors within nine months from the time the accounts were opened, she also allowed them to withdraw the stolen money from Bangladesh Bank.

Deguito has already denied the allegation.

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

She said all the transactions in her branch were approved by RCBC president Lorenzo Tan, claiming that she is only being used as a scapegoat by bank officials to avoid criminal liabilities.

The controversy is also being investigated by the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, which will also hold another hearing tomorrow.

The DOJ has also summoned businessmen Kam Sin Wong alias Kim Wong and Weikang Xu over the same charges.

They were told to appear in the second hearing on April 19.

In its separate complaint, the AMLC alleged that about $21.6 million of the laundered amount went to Wong while some $59.2 million to Xu.  

‘No shortcuts’

While the need to return the funds spirited out of the Bangladeshi national bank by a transnational cybercrime syndicate to the Philippines is indisputable, a noted constitutionalist  has warned  against resorting to shortcuts in the final disposition of the controversy.

“We are in this situation because of shortcuts. We need to start a culture which follows the rules and procedures in going about things,” former University of the East dean Amado Valdez told reporters over the weekend.

Sought for his comment on the probability of an abbreviated process for the return of the $81 million to the Bangladeshi government, Valdez said the proper procedure is to institute forfeiture proceedings .

“This is a short process especially if there are no other parties who would contest ownership of the money. If there is no other claimant it can be in the form of a summary proceeding,” he explained.

Going through the process prescribed by the law would help prevent a problematic precedent in the future, Valdez said.

“In any case we have jurisdiction over that controversy.” Valdez added.