THE Philippine government can now turn over to Bangladesh $15 million of the $81 million funds stolen by hackers from its bank and laundered into the country.
This developed after the Department of Justice was able to secure a court order allowing the release of the Bangladeshi funds earlier surrendered by casino junket operator Kim Wong and forfeited in favor of the government.
DoJ Chief State Counsel Ricardo Paras III revealed the Manila City Regional Trial Court, Branch 53, has granted their pleading seeking release of the amount being kept in the vault of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to the Bangladeshi government.
“The court declared the Bangladesh government to be the rightful owner of the said amount,” Paras said in an interview.
With the court order, Paras stressed that the Embassy of Bangladesh in the country may now coordinate with the BSP for the turnover of the funds.
According to Paras, the DoJ represented the Bangladesh government as counsel in this case after Bangladeshi officials sought legal assistance from the government under the UN convention on transnational organized crime.
The three-page court order declared “the Bangladesh Bank of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh to be the rightful owner of the amount totaling $4,630,000 and P488,280,000 that were forfeited and kept in the vault of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.”
“Let the aforementioned forfeited amount… be released in favor of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh,” read the order signed by Manila RTC Executive Judge Reynaldo Alhambra.
Paras explained that the court proceedings for the release of the amount took only about two months since there was no opposition to government’s petition.
“There is a procedure. We have to follow our law on the Anti-Money Laundering law and the procedure. We have to go to court to file. We just don’t give the money to anybody. There has to be a court order,” he stressed.
The DOJ official said the government is still tracing the remainder of the $81-million laundered cash and revealed that Bangladeshi officials are set to return to the country next month for this purpose.
Paras pointed out that the court order on the forfeiture case would have no effect on the money laundering charges by the Anti-Money Launderimg Council against Wong, former Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. branch manager Maia Santos-Deguito and executives of remittance firm Philrem Service Corp.
The DOJ recently concluded its preliminary investigation on the criminal charges.
All respondents have denied money laundering charges in their respective counter-affidavits during the four-month hearings.
Deguito denied facilitating the laundering of the stolen money, insisting 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 she is only being used as scapegoat by the bank officials to avoid criminal liabilities.
However, the AMLC spared Tan from the charges filed before the DOJ despite Deguito’s statement.