DOJ wraps up $81-M heist probe

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Justice (DOJ) has concluded its preliminary investigation on the money laundering charges against five individuals linked to the disappearance in the Philippines of $81 million stolen from the account of the Bangladesh government in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The three consolidated complaints filed by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) against former Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. branch manager Maia Santos-Deguito and several others are now up for resolution.

It took Assistant State Prosecutor Gilmarie Fe Pacamarra four months of hearing before deciding to submit the complaints for resolution. A resolution may be ready within the month, Pacamarra said.

Together with Deguito in the consolidated complaints were four other RCBC officers, casino junket operators Kam Sin Wong alias Kim Wong and Weikang Xu, Philrem president Salud Bautista and chairman of the board and treasurer Michael Bautista, and anti-money laundering compliance officer Anthony Pelejo.

These cases pending with the DOJ involve about $15 million of the stolen money.

Apart from the $15 million covered by the DOJ cases, a total of $2.7 million was earlier recovered and frozen by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. while $63 million more from the stolen money remains missing.

All respondents have denied the money laundering charges in their respective counter-affidavits.

Deguito filed her answer last May and asked the DOJ to dismiss the charges for lack of probable cause.

She denied the allegation that she facilitated the laundering of the stolen money, insisting that it was former RCBC president Lorenzo Tan who ordered her to open the four fictitious accounts where the $80,884,641.63 stolen by hackers from the Bangladesh Bank went. ?The former manager of the bank’s branch in Jupiter Street in Makati City stressed all the transactions in her branch had the approval of Tan, claiming that she was only being used as scapegoat by the bank officials to avoid criminal liabilities.

Wong also denied the charges last June and claimed it was Deguito who facilitated the transactions.

He said he has already returned to the government P38.28 million and $4.63 million he got from the laundered money.

The Bautista couple and Pelejo filed their counter affidavits last month.

They argued that the DOJ should dismiss the charges because AMLC’s complaint-affidavit did not specify any predicate crime by the alleged source of the money, a key element of money laundering.

The respondents further claimed the hacking of the Bangladesh Bank did not happen in the Philippines. Based on the principle of “territoriality” in the country’s criminal law, the alleged crime should have been committed in the Philippines for the prosecution to proceed.

Philrem was the firm tapped to deliver the money from the RCBC Jupiter branch to local casinos where the funds disappeared. 

Last month, Bangladeshi officials led by Ambassador John Gomes went to the DOJ to seek help in their recovery of the stolen money.

Justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II vowed speedy resolution of the charges and promised to provide assistance to the Bangladesh officials in dealing with other government agencies.