Philippines moves to recover rest of stolen BB fund

The Philippines will turn to the country's gaming industry to recover a part of the $81 million stolen from the Bangladesh central bank channelled through local casinos and gambled by a network of at least 19 people.

The Philippine Anti-Money Laundering Council will ask the courts to direct casinos and junket operators to recover and return as much of the stolen funds as possible to Bangladesh, Executive Director Julia Abad said at the Senate hearing yesterday, reports Bloomberg.

“We have proof that the money was actually transferred to their accounts,” Abad said, referring to the gaming operators.

Philippine casinos are in the spotlight for one of the largest bank heists in modern history, where thieves hacked into the Bangladesh Bank's account at the US Federal Reserve, routed the funds to accounts at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. and then laundered the money in at least two local gaming halls before the trail went cold. The Senate held its fourth hearing on the case that had riveted the Philippines.

The 19 players gambled for five weeks under two foreign junket operators at Solaire Resort & Casino, according to two reports its parent Bloomberry Resorts Corporation submitted to the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee and gaming regulator, which were seen by Bloomberg News. Silverio Benny J Tan, compliance officer at Bloomberry, said in the reports casinos were made “a scapegoat in this unfortunate affair.”

'DIRTY MONEY'

Junket operator Kim Wong, who said he was an interpreter for two Chinese nationals linked to the stolen funds, said he received money that was for debt repayment. He pledged to return 450 million pesos (about $9.7 million) of the funds within the month after turning over $5.46 million of what he characterised as “dirty money” to the Council in the past week.

When asked if gambling profits out of the stolen funds will be returned, lawyers for Bloomberry, Midas Hotel & Casino and two junket operators said they will ask their clients.

Bloomberry is willing to return the 108.7 million pesos it had frozen and confiscated from the 19 people who gambled the $30 million that its Solaire Resort & Casino received, compliance officer Tan told the Senate hearing.

DEPICTED AS VICTIMS

“The casinos seem to be washing their hands of this mess,” said Benito Lim, a political science professor at the Ateneo de Manila University. “They're depicting themselves as victims. But the government must plug the law's loopholes by including casinos in the coverage of the Anti-Money Laundering Act.”

Philrem Service Corp, a local remittance company that has said it either wired or handed over bundles of stolen cash to the casinos and their junket operators in February, denied it had pocketed as much as $18 million of the stolen funds.

“We delivered everything, no money is with us,” Michael Bautista, treasurer of Philrem told the Senate hearing.

Meanwhile, Philippine Daily Inquirer reports that Rizal Commercial Banking Corp's (RCBC) former branch manager Maia Santos-Deguito has claimed she was just a “pawn in a high-stakes chess game played by giants in international banking and high finance.”

She described herself that way when she returned yesterday at the ongoing Senate blue ribbon committee's investigation into the alleged $81 million stolen funds from the Bangladesh's central bank.

“Recently, other resource persons have laid practically all the blame on me for the alleged money-laundering as if I had the resources at my mid-management level to put all the pieces in place for a crime involving almost P4 billion,” Deguito said, reading from a prepared statement.

“Truly, a crime of this magnitude could be possible only with the participation of people from the highest wealthy businessmen whose far-reaching powers and influence span several countries.”

It was Deguito, former RCBC branch manager on Jupiter Street, Makati City, who facilitated the opening of five bank accounts allegedly used to receive and withdraw the said stolen funds.

If there was a conspiracy, Deguito said, she had no knowledge of it.

And if she had mistakes, she said, it was that she believed and trusted the RCBC President Lorenzo Tan, followed him and relied on the fact that he “could not have been unaware of a transaction that has been labelled the biggest bank heist in the history of the world.”

“I am but a pawn in a highest-stakes chess games played by giants in international banking and high finance,” she said.

“If this committee is looking for the 'grandmaster,' it is not me. The line runs much higher and involves persons with much more clout and authority than a simple bank manager with modest capabilities has,” Deguito added.