Filipino firm to return $2.3 lakh to BB

Money transfer firm PhilRem Service Corporation will issue Bangladesh Bank a check of 10.47 million peso ($2.3lakh) -- the amount it profited from transactions linked to the central bank fund heist.

“We will return 10,474,654 peso to the Bangladeshis not just as a sign of apology, but as a symbol of a Filipino company willing to find justice,” PhilRem President Salud Bautista said during the Senate blue ribbon committee hearing yesterday, reported Filipino news website rappler.com.

“As soon as the Bangladesh Bank would confirm who the payee would be, we'll prepare a check,” Bautista added.

During the hearing on Tuesday, Bautista claimed that Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) branch manager Deguito instructed her to convert into pesos part of what turned out to be the $81-million funds stolen by hackers from Bangladesh Bank, and to deliver it in tranches to a registered casino junket operator.

Bautista said Deguito instructed her to deliver 600 million peso and another $18 million in cash to a certain Weikang Xu.

Other than the money delivered to Xu, the rest of the $81 million stolen funds was transferred to Philippines casinos, said the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).

About $29 million was transferred to Bloomberry Resorts, which operates the Solaire mega-casino, and another $21 million to Eastern Hawaii Leisure, which operates a casino that mainly caters to a Chinese clientele in the northern province of Cagayan, the AMLC added.