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Friday, March 29, 2024

RCBC can open 4 accounts

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RIZAL Commercial Banking Corp. said on Tuesday it is now able to open the four accounts through which the $81-million stolen from Bangladesh Bank were channeled after it was determined that the accounts were opened under fictitious names.

At the resumption of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee hearing into the biggest cyber bank heist, RCBC lawyer Maria Cecilia Estavillo said the controversial accounts are no longer covered by the Bank Secrecy Law because it was determined that accounts were opened with fake driver's licenses.

Estavillo said the bank can now close the four accounts because they were opened under the names of Michael Cruz, Alfred Vergara, Enrico Vasquez and Jessie Lagrosas as shown in the driver's licenses presented to the bank, along with initial deposits of $500 each, at the time of the opening.

Proof of innocence. After returning $4.63 million and P38.28 million, businessman Kim Wong said during a Senate hearing that he is preparing to return P450 million more within 30 days. The funds were deposited in the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. after they were stolen from the US Federal Reserve accounts of the Bangladeshi central bank. LINO SANTOS

"[But] the [Land Transportation Office] licenses given to the four were all fake. This is already a legal basis to close those accounts, and with that, I hope you will open those accounts," said Bam Aquino, presenting certifications issued by the LTO.

RCBC president-on-leave Lorenzo Tan noted that dismissed RCBC-Jupiter branch manager Maia Deguito opened the accounts through which the $81-million stolen from the Bangladesh Bank's accounts in the United States were transferred last February.

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Tan accused Deguito of trying to muddle the issue to downplay her role as one of the masterminds of this caper” and said she “had already testified under oath in a previous Senate hearing that I have never instructed her to open any account at the RCBC-Jupiter branch, and that she merely assumed that I knew of the transaction.”

He said Deguito misrepresented and attempted to portray him (Tan) as complicit in her actions as she prefaced her written statement with a claim that she is simply a mother who is working to earn a living with her husband and who simply desires to be promoted in the bank.

In a prepared statement read before the senators, Deguito said she has unwittingly allowed herself to be set up as a scapegoat.

“We of course know where Ms. Deguito is coming from when, out of the blue, she said in Tuesday’s resumption of the Senate probe that she was a mere victim of this cyber heist and that her only fault was in obeying the supposed order from her erstwhile boss, Mr. Tan, for her to take care of his friends,” Tan's lawyer Francis Lim said.

"Her latest statement is but the latest episode in her wild narrative about my client’s alleged involvement in this cyber crime just to obfuscate the issues and downplay her role as one of the masterminds of this caper," he added.

But senators took turns in grilling her about her direct involvement in the money laundering and her supposed role in the theft was bolstered by Estavillo's testimony that the bank’s Head Office was supposed to freeze the laundered money at the Jupiter branch.

However, the accounts were eventually cleared because Deguito insisted that she knew the account holders and that she was waiting for the money to be remitted ever since these accounts were opened a year ago.

Moreover, PhilRem president Salud Bautista told Senator Sergio Osmeña III she had received instructions from Deguito herself to whom to deliver the money in cash.

Bautista and her husband Michael were also placed under intense questioning by Blue Ribbon commitee chairperson Sen. Teofisto Guingona and Senator Ralp Recto for giving conflicting statements.

On several occasions, they rebuked the couple for deceiving the senators when they contradicted their own earlier testimonies.

Guingona censured PhilRem for its contradicting statements regarding their delivery of money to casino junket operators Weikang Xu and Kam Sin Wong, a.k.a. Kim Wong.

“You have a lot of explaining to do, because hearing after hearing after hearing, you have been saying that you delivered P600 million and $18 million to Weikang Xu in Solaire, and you also said that Wong was present when the money was picked from your house. You have contradicted yourself, I think you shouldn’t add to your problems by giving false testimony,” Guingona told the couple during the panel’s fourth public hearing.

Michael Bautista, treasurer and co-owner of PhilRem, categorically denied that the supposedly missing $17 million is in their possession.

According to PhilRem, they transferred P600 million and $18 million in six tranches, the first delivered to Solaire with their messengers and the five others were picked up from Bautista’s house. But the senators were not convinced.

Wong also promised to return P450- million dirty money, a portion of th $81-million laundered money. He earlier turned over $4.6 million to the Anti-Money Laundering at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas after testifying he was not a part of the cybercrime group.

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