Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. on Thursday debunked the claim of dismissed branch manager Maia Deguito that the transactions on the $81 million laundered money had the approval of the bank’s head office.
“This is false,” RCBC executive vice president Macel Fernandez-Estavillo said. Deguito herself admitted that the accounts were credited automatically without need of any approval.
Bank records showed that, at the end of day of Feb. 5, a hold was initiated by Operations Group but was lifted when Maia explained that the clients were long-standing clients of hers and that the amounts were expected, and that KYC (know your client) documents were in order.
Hence, the lift of the hold was approved based on Deguito’s representations that these were long standing clients and that the funds were expected.
This showed that Deguito did not tell the truth to RCBC because she did not have head office approval, and in fact wanted to keep the Head Office in the dark as long as she could.
In that letter, Deguito claimed to have met the account holders and spoken repeatedly with Mr. Jessie Christopher Lagrosas (one of the account holders) and received his instructions. Deguito later admitted that she lied as she was only getting instructions from Kim Wong. In fact, the SSS ID of Lagrosas shows the face of Adrian Yujuico.
Deguito loaded P20M cash in her White Jazz car, as stated in affidavits of two security guards and two branch officers, and not in the gray Lexus SUV of William Go as Deguito and Angela Torres claim. Deguito has stated in the Senate that she did not turn over any money to Kim Wong.
RCBC intends to sue both Deguito and Torres for perjury relating to statements made in the Senate hearings and in the affidavit of Torres relating to this.
Estavillo said “Raul Tan was cleared by RCBC of any involvement in the purported $81M cyber heist. Out of decency and honor, and despite his lack of involvement in the same, he tendered his resignation because of command responsibility, as Deguito – whose culpability has been clearly and convincingly established — was under him. Tan, head of RCBC treasury department, offered previously to resign (these were not accepted by RCBC) and insisted that the offer already be accepted.
Deguito, on the other hand, admitted to the Senate that she lied to Head Office to get the transaction approved, clearly showing that Head Office had no involvement in the same.”