THE conviction of a former Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) official for money laundering, in relation to the $81 million stolen funds of Bangladesh Bank, will indirectly help in the recovery of the remaining funds, the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) said.
Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 149 on Thursday found guilty for money laundering former RCBC Jupiter, Makati Branch Manager Maia Deguito, and sentenced her to four to seven years of prison each for eight counts of money laundering.
In a statement, the AMLC clarified that Deguito’s conviction “is entirely separate from recovery efforts.”
However, it noted that “Deguito’s conviction only helps the retrieval indirectly by bolstering the civil forfeiture [CF] cases through which recovery efforts are coursed.”
It explained that, to date, CF cases have been filed against Eastern Leisure Hawaii Co. owner Kam Sin Wong, also known as Kim Wong, and Philrem Service Corp. owners Michael and Salud Bautista, whose company was tapped to remit the funds to Wong’s casino.
“Both cases are pending before the Regional Trial Courts,” the AMLC said, adding that “a petition for review has also been made before the Supreme Court, contesting the lifting of the freeze order on the bank account of Bloomberry Resorts and Hotels, Inc. [Solaire Resort and Casino].”
The case started when the BB funds were stolen from its account with the Federal Reserve of New York on February 4, 2016, a crime considered one of the biggest cyber-heists in the world.
The funds were transferred to four US dollar accounts that were opened at the RCBC Jupiter branch in May 2015 under the names of Michael F. Cruz, Jessie Christopher M. Lagrosas, Alfred S. Vergara and Enrico T. Vasquez. What turned out to be bogus accounts became the main liability of Deguito as branch manager.
Part of the stolen money was laundered in casinos and was eventually traced to Wong, who later on returned a total of $4.63 million and P488 million worth of cash to the AMLC.