The Pasig City Regional Trial Court has convicted for money laundering Sheryl Boratong, the wife of the late Amin Imam Boratong, operator of the so-called ‘shabu tiangge’ reportedly located near the Pasig city hall.
Aside from Boratong, the court also found Godofredo Aquino Medenilla, a bank manager, guilty complicity for supposedly helping the Boratongs facilitate the opening of accounts and bank transfers of their funds.
Boratong was sentenced to up to 13 years of imprisonment and a fine of P3 million for six counts of violation of Republic Act 9160 or the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2001.
Meanwhile, Medenilla is meted with up to six years of imprisonment for two counts of the same offense.
Sheryl and her husband Amin Imam were arrested in an anti-illegal drugs operation by the police on February 10, 2006 that led to the discovery of the “shabu tiangge,”
Besides violations of the Dangerous Drugs Act, the arrest of the couple also triggered an investigation for possible violations of the Anti-Money Laundering Law.
In July 2009, a Pasig court found Boratong and his wife guilty of owning and maintaining the shabu tiangge. Amin Imam died during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, an investigation by the Anti-Money Laundering Council showed that Sheryl has been maintaining bank accounts with millions of pesos in deposits despite the absence of a legitimate source of income.
In the joint decision by the Pasig City RTC Branch 167, the total amount involved in the case of Sheryl was almost P1.5-million involving several deposits made in three months.
“The huge amount of funds that Sheryl transacted for just three months from December 2005 to February 2006 cannot be justified by any legal source of purpose,” the court said.
The court added that the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) stated in a letter that Sheryl had not paid any tax, “thus the funds are proceeds and/or related to the unlawful activity of violation of RA 9165. Sheryl was even convicted for violation of RA 9165 as shown in the decision dated June 30, 2009.”
For his part, Medenilla was convicted for facilitating the transfer of Boratong’s funds from another bank in Pasig to an account under the name of the sisters of Boratong’s first wife Memie, worth over P9 million.
Medenilla denied the allegations saying his duty was only to make transactions of their top clients as smooth as possible. He said top clients were those with deposits of over P20 million such as the Boratongs, who deposits increased to P40-million.
However, Memie, testified before a Manila court that it was due to Medenilla’s advice that she transferred her accounts to her siblings.
In her testimony, she was asked about the explanation given by the bank manager on the need to transfer the accounts to people she could trust.
“Because of the raid of the Mapayapa tiangge, according to the Manager, my husband’s name was already mentioned, so he advised us to transfer the Accounts to our trusted person,” she said.
Medenilla was also ordered to pay a P1.5-million fine.