THE dismissed manager of RCBC Jupiter branch in Makati, Maia Santos Deguito, has turned down a government offer to enter the witness protection program despite the money laundering charges being filed against her, Senator Sergio Osmeña III said Tuesday.
“We offered Maia the WPP but she turned it down,” Osmeña, chairman of the Senate committee on banks and financial institutions, told radio dwIZ.
Osmeña’s committee, together with the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee chaired by Senator Teofisto Guingona III, has conducted two hearings into the scandal involving $81 million stolen by hackers from the Bangladesh Bank that was channeled through RCBC and local casinos.
RCBC on Tuesday said it has fired Deguito and her former customer relations officer, Angela Torres, for violating bank policies and procedures and falsification of commercial documents.
Other branch and bank officials are expected to be meted out various sanctions ranging from termination to suspension in the coming days when the internal investigation is expected to be completed, the bank said in a statement.
The bank said Deguito and Torres’ breaches facilitated the alleged laundering of $81 million that is now being investigated by the Senate and other government agencies.
The bank said it would file appropriate charges in court against Deguito and Torres by next week.
In a separate interview, Senator Aquilino Pimentel III said Deguito was a potential state witness against some people who were more guilty than she was.
But Senator JV Ejercito said it was too soon to make her a state witness.
“Being a state witness means she must not be the most guilty, but according to the testimony during the hearing, she appears to be one of the main actors in this scheme,” Ejercito said.
“In fact, aside from her former senior customer relations officer [Torres], all other witnesses are contradicting her claim of innocence in this story,” he said.
Ejercito said some of the testimony that Deguito gave in an executive session should be made public.
“I think she already agreed to disclose parts of her testimony except those that could incriminate her,” said Ejercito.
Deguito, along with four account holders who used fictitious names to open dollar accounts with the bank’s Juliter branch, were charged with money laundering before the Justice Department.
Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said he also supported the release of the transcripts of Deguito’s closed-door testimony.
Pimentel disagreed, saying this might compromise Deguito’s constitutional right against self incrimination.
During the public hearing, Deguito invoked her right against self incrimination several times but promised to tell all she knew in an executive session.
Recto said businessman Kim Wong aka Kam Sin Wong, a known casino junket operator, referred the four accounts used to accept the stolen dollars to Deguito.
Deguito also said Wong is a friend of RCBC president Lorenzo Tan.
On the other hand, Recto said another businessman, William Go, had a lot of explaining to do. A total of $66 million from the $81milllion in stolen funds were consolidated and channeled to an account under Go’s name.
“All of them are suspects involved in this money laundering. There are five major persons of interest—Kim Wong, Maia Deguito, William Go, PhilRem [remittance] and other RCBC officials,” Pimenel said.
On Tuesday, the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) asked the Justice Department to criminally prosecute Kam Sin Wong alias Kim Wong and Weikang Xu for violating the Anti-Money Laundering Act.
The council cited witness testimonies during the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on the case where Xu, a casino operator, was said to have received $30.5 million out of the funds between Feb. 5 and 13 last year.
Wong, president and general manager of the Eastern Hawaii Leisure Co. Ltd., a company organized in Hong Kong and operating in Cagayan Economic Processing Zone, was accused of receiving P1 billion or $21.6 million, making several withdrawals from his personal and corporate accounts on Feb. 10 and 11 this year.
The complaint said Xu is a Chinese national and casino junket operator staying as a guest at the Solaire Resort and Casino in Parañaque City.
Four bank accounts under fictitious names were opened on May 15, 2015 at the RCBC Jupiter branch in Makati by Deguito allegedly upon the referral of Wong.
According to the AMLC, Deguito facilitated the money transfers involving the Bangladesh funds to the four accounts last February.
Another account under the name of William So Go was opened on Feb. 1, 2016. This was where the money from the four “spurious” accounts were allegedly transferred.
In his testimony before the Senate Blue Ribbon hearings, Go disowned the dollar account maintained at the RCBC Jupiter branch, including a peso account opened in July 2014.
All the funds that were credited into Go’s account were later transferred to the account of PhilRem Service Corp., a remittance company, maintained at RCBC-Unimart Greenhills.
From Feb. 5 to 11, 2016, PhilRem transferred P1,373,474,850.77 to Bloomberry Resorts and Hotel, Inc. Solaire’s corporate secretary would later testify before the Senate that the amount was transferred to the account of Xu.
“Investigation disclosed that the funds transferred to Solaire were converted into non-negotiable chips which was then issued to regular casino players,” read the complaint.
AMLC said an investigation it had conducted revealed that PhilRem transferred P1 billion to Eastern Hawaii Leisure Co., Ltd’s Philippine National Bank account.
Wong then reportedly made withdrawals amounting to P900,475,000.00 from Feb. 10 to 26, 2016. He also made a fund transfer or deposit to his personal PNB account on Feb. 10, and a cash withdrawal of P400 million on Feb. 11 from his personal PNB account.
The AMLC last week filed a similar complaint against Deguito and four John Does who owned the spurious accounts at RCBC Jupiter.