The head of Filipino bank which is at the centre of transfer of US$81 million money stolen to Bangladesh Bank to casinos, has gone on indefinite leave for the sake of the probe into the heist.
The board of directors of Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) accepted a second offer from the RCBC president and CEO, Lorenzo Tan, to go on leave, a statement issued by the bank said Wednesday.
The announcement comes six days before the Senate Blue Ribbon panel resumes hearings into the $81-million money laundering case that has dragged the bank into an alleged attempt to use Philippine entities to hide funds stolen from Bangladesh.
In an earlier statement, made also on Wednesday, the bank apologised for “the involvement of its personnel in the money laundering scheme now subject of Senate Blue Ribbon (committee) and AMLC (anti-money laundering council) investigations.”
Tan insisted on taking a leave to allow him to focus on clearing his name in the money laundering issue a board committee is investigating, according to the bank statement. The committee is assisted by SGV auditors and external counsels.
He was dragged into the issue by Jupiter branch manager Maia Santos Deguito for knowing individuals who might allegedly be involved in the $81-million remittance. The case is now also the subject of money laundering investigations by the anti-money laundering council, the justice department and the Senate.
So far, the RCBC statement noted, no evidence has been presented against Tan linking him to the issue and the board has taken cognizance of the statement of Deguito before the Senate that Tan had nothing to do with the opening of the accounts that received the $81-million remittance.
RCBC chair Helen Y Dee will take over in Tan’s absence. She will be assisted by a management committee led by vice chairman Cesar Virata and Armando Medina.
No admission of fault
In a statement addressed to its shareholders, clients and the public, the bank made no admission of any fault on its part and said its cooperation
with any investigation into how $81 million stolen from the Bangladesh central bank’s account in the Federal Reserve Bank in New York passed
through it before ending up in local casinos would be determined by “legal bounds.”
During the first sessions of the Senate inquiry into the money laundering, RCBC executives invoked the bank secrecy law time and again to
avoid answering questions and focussed the blame on Maia Deguito, manager of the bank’s Jupiter Makati branch, and her assistant, Angela Torres.
Deguito and Torres have been fired for “violating bank policies and procedures and falsification of commercial documents.”
The two are accused of facilitating the money laundering and a complaint has been filed against Deguito with the justice department.
RCBC said it is “also conducting its own inquiry to identify and address any weaknesses in its controls and operations which may have
facilitated the scheme” and “take appropriate action against any bank officer or staff found guilty of fault or negligence.”
Why RCBC, Philrem not yet sued?
A Senator wanted to know why the RCBC and Philrem, a remittance firm that converted dollars into pesos in the scheme, were not sued for
money laundering.
“How come only Kam Sin Wong alias Kim Wong and Weikang Xu were the subjects of a complaint affidavit filed by the AMLC?” said Senator Aquilino Pimentel III, a member of the Senate blue ribbon committee that is investigating the scandal.
“On March 29 (during Senate hearing). I will ask AMLC, ‘How come only Wong and Xu have been included?’” he was quoted by GMA News referring to an interview on Wednesday.
In seeking to clarify what the AMLC have against Wong, Pimentel noted the reply he got was that the council discovered a Philippine National Bank account after money was remitted to Eastern Hawaii Leisure Company Ltd.
Eastern Hawaii operates a casino that was supposedly one of the three used by perpetrators to launder the $81 million stolen from the Bangladesh Bank account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and transferred to the RCBC branch on Jupiter Street in Makati City.
“So what happens now to the actors before the money reached Eastern Hawaii? Who are these actors, Philrem and RCBC, the bank itself, Mr. William So Go? How come they have not been included in the cases?” Pimentel said.
The AMLC on Tuesday charged Wong and Xu for violating Section 4(a) and (b) of the anti-money laundering act.
Source: Prothom Alo