The Anti-Money Laundering Council, the country’s financial intelligence unit, has secured 55 convictions for money laundering against a liaison officer and secretary to the president of a chemical trader-distributor.
In a 56-page decision promulgated on April 18, 2018, presiding judge Caridad Walse-Lutero of the Regional Trial Court in Quezon City found Annabella Ylagan guilty beyond reasonable doubt for 55 counts of money laundering and sentenced her to seven-year imprisonment for each count.
The AMLC, also the enforcer of the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2001, as amended, proved that Ylagan transferred funds from her employer’s accounts in three banks to a bank account she opened under fictitious bank accounts under the name “Lourdes R. Liu” and a company purportedly created by Ylagan.
Investigations showed that Ylagan’s modus operandi involved routing and faxing of forged letters of authority, instructing banks to transfer funds from her employer’s accounts to her own fictitious accounts. Ylagan amassed P12 million over a four-year period.
Ylagan’s illicit scheme was exposed when an account officer of the bank where her company maintained accounts phoned the company to verify a fund transfer in favor of one of her companies.
Because Ylagan was not at the office at the time, one of her colleagues took the call. Eventually, it was discovered that the company never approved the transfers: there were no documents to back up the transfers. The company president was alerted, and investigations into Ylagan’s transactions were conducted.
Ylagan admitted in writing to executing the fund transfers and opening fictitious accounts. The company promptly charged Ylagan for two separate crimes: Qualified Theft, and Qualified Theft through Falsification of Private Documents.
The courts convicted Ylagan guilty as charged. Moreover, she was also ordered to pay the company P9,852,722.55, representing actual damages that the company suffered based on the evidence it offered.
Executive director Mel Georgie Racela of the AMLC Secretariat said 55 convictions, by any stretch, was “a sterling accomplishment of the AMLC.”
“We commend the investigators, prosecutors, and lawyers who have handled this case, and very much appreciate the cooperation extended by Ylagan’s former employer in providing the evidence to convict her. We see here a kind of shared interest and cooperation between the AMLC and the company, which was very interested in seeing the case through,” Racela said.
He said AMLC was very committed to prosecuting money laundering as these convictions showed. Ylagan is now serving her sentence at the Correctional Institute for Women.
As of April 2018, the AMLC has secured convictions for no less than 92 counts of money laundering. Those convicted include drug dealers, illegal job recruiters, fraudsters, kidnappers, bankers and corrupt officials, to name a few.
Through the efforts of the AMLC, millions of pesos and US dollars, and countless properties have also been forfeited and frozen in favor of the government.
At present, the AMLC has 19 pending complaints for money laundering before the Department of Justice; one pending complaint for money laundering before the Office of the Ombudsman for preliminary investigation; and 22 money laundering charges with the trial courts.
More convictions are expected to be handed down within the year, the agency said.