Dismissed banker Maia Santos-Deguito on Tuesday admitted that she lied to conceal the personalities involved in the $81-million cyber loot stolen from the Bangladesh bank and channeled to casinos in the Philippines.
The Department of Justice, meanwhile, deferred the preliminary investigation on the anti-money laundering complaint filed against casino junket operator Kam Sin Wong (Kim Wong) to May 3, 2016.
Testifying before the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, Deguito said that Wong instructed her to transfer the money from the accounts of four depositors—Michael Francisco Cruz, Jessie Christopher Lagrosas, Enrico Teodoro Vasquez and Alfred Santos Vergara.
The funds were then transmitted to the account of Centurytex Trading owned by William Go, said Deguito, former branch manager of RCBC Jupiter branch.
Senator Serge Osmeña III asked why she followed Wong’s order, Deguito said the operator was the one who referred the four account holders and “acted as their authorized representatives to inquire balances and instruct me for further instructions.”
But Deguito said she also cannot understand why Wong would order the transfer of the money to the account of Go.
RCBC’s legal chief Maria Celia Estavillo countered Deguito’s claim, saying they have her letter which stated that it was Lagrosas who gave her instructions on the transfer of funds to Go.
Estavillo accused Deguito of contradicting her own written statement to the bank.
Confronted by Osmeña in giving a different statement to the bank, Deguito related that during that time, she was not yet ready to speak up on who were the referrals of the accounts, and the person she was talking to. That was the advice of her lawyer.
Yes, your honor, it was really Mr. Wong who instructed me,” she said.
“So you were lying to your own head office?,” Osmeña asked Deguito.
When Deguito tried to repeat her explanation, the senator cut her off and told her: “No, don’t give us the excuse for lying if you will consider that lying.”
“Sir, yes, I would acknowledge,” replied Deguito.
Mark Palmares, a messenger of Philrem Service Corp., told the Senate that P90 million and another $500,00, said to be part of the $81-million stolen from Bangladesh bank, were delivered to Solaire Resort and Casino Manila in Parañaque City on Feb. 5.
Testifying for the first time before the Senate panel chaired by Senator Teofisto Guingona, Palmares confirmed that he delivered the money upon the instruction of his boss, Philrem president Salud Bautista.
Bautista said the delivery of funds was supposedly upon the instruction of Deguito.
He said the huge amount was loaded in suitcase, a traveling bag and a shoulder bag and was brought inside the hotel by means of a trolley.
According to Palmares, he picked up the money from their office at Cityland in Makati City and transported it to Solaire around 7:30 p.m. He said he delivered the money by himself.
When Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile asked him how heavy is P90 million that one person can carry it, Palmares replied they were placed in a trolley after being unloaded from their vehicle.
Enrile then inquired how many bags were used to carry the money, Palmares said there were three in all. This was also the same response given by Palmares when Guingona asked him the same question. With Rey Requejo
“A suitcase, a long traveling bag and a shoulder bag, there were three in total,” replied Pamares.
Asked by Guingona if he was able to carry it alone, it was at this point that Palmares revealed that there was the company driver who helped him off load the bags.
However, the messenger said it was only him who pushed the trolley to the VIP room of Solaire where his boss, Bautista, and other Chinese-looking men were waiting for him. He handed the receiving copy to Bautista and left the trolley with the bags of money.
Guingona then directed his questions at Bautista and asked how she gave the money to the recipient, junket operator Weikang Xu. Bautista recalled that it was Kim Wong who helped him identify Weikang Xu.
“So I just asked for his passport and have him sign it,” said Bautista.
In the same hearing, Anti-Money Laundering Council executive director Julia Bacay-Abad confirmed that Eastern Hawaii Leisure Co. Ltd., another compnay of Wong, through his lawyers, on Monday turned over P200 million to their office “for safekeeping” to be returned to the people of Bangladesh.
Wong admitted it was part of the P450-million funds that he promised to return if proven that the money was part of the alleged stolen funds from Bangladesh.
He earlier said a total of P1 billion of the $81-million funds remitted to RCBC, P450 million of which was debt payment to him by junket operator Shuhua Gao. He said the remaining P550 million was converted into chips and played in the casino. He said more than P40 million of the amount was left.
PhilRem maintained that all the funds related to the $81-million money laundering scheme went to casinos in Manila and junket operator WeiKang Xu.
Bautista said Xu received P600 million and $18 million (P857.7 million) from PhilRem.ӬӬ Philrem also converted into pesos $61 million (P2.9 billion) of the hacked loot.Ӭ
Wong earlier claimed that the $17-million unaccounted funds were still with the remittance company, but this was repeatedly denied by Bautista. With Rey Requejo