THE Department of Justice (DOJ) has found probable cause to charge former Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) bank manager Maia Deguito and the officers of Philrem Service Corporation (Philrem) with money laundering in connection with the $81 million Bangladesh bank heist.
Eight counts of charges for violation of the Anti Money Laundering Act were filed against former Jupiter-Makati branch manager Deguito and four other bank depositors identified only as John Does.
"The Consolidated Resolution recommends the indictment of Ms. Deguito and four unknown persons; based on the fact that she facilitated the withdrawal of the said funds from RCBC and depositing them to the accounts of the unknown and fictitious account holders," the DOJ resolution stated.
Philrem's president Salud Bautista, its treasurer Michael Bautista, and Anthony Pelejo, the firm's anti-money laundering compliance officer were likewise facing four counts of the same violation.
The DOJ meanwhile has yet to rule on the complaint filed against RCBC executives led by bank president Raul Victor Tan.
In February 2016, $81 million was stolen from the Bank of Bangladesh' account in the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, USA.
Deguito allegedly facilitated the transfer of the money to four fictitious accounts belonging to certain Michael Fransisco Cruz, Jessie Cristopher Lagrosas, Alfred Santos Vergara and Enrico Teodoro Vasquez.
From the said accounts, the money was allegedly consolidated into a single US dollar account of Chinese businessman William Go.
The $81 million dollars was withrawn, converted into peso and transferred to at least three casinos namely the Eastern Hawaii Leisure Company Limited, Midas Hotel and Casino and Soaire Resort and Casino.
'Junket operators absolved'
The complaint filed against the casino junket operators involved in the money laundering scandal, Filipino-Chinese national Kim Wong and Weikang Xu, were dismissed for "insufficiency of evidence."
The DOJ said that "there was no showing that Kim Wong or Weikang Xu directly participated by overt acts in the laundering operation."
Deguito earlier said that Wong, a friend of RCBC's president Tan, was the one who referred to her the four bank depositors instrumental in the release of the stolen money.
Wong has earlier turned over to the Anti-Money Laundering Council about $15 million laundered money his firm Eastern Hawaii got hold of.
The amount was being safe kept by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. (SunStar Philippines)