The Anti-Money Laundering Council has been ordered to comment on the pleading filed by businessman Kam Sin Wong alias Kim Wong seeking the dismissal of money laundering charges against him in connection with the $80.9 million stolen by hackers from the Bangladesh Bank and laundered to the country.
Assistant State Prosecutor Gilmarie Fe Pacamarra, the handling prosecutor of the case, has directed AMLC to file its reply to the counter-affidavit submitted by Wong last May 31 denying the criminal charges filed by the council.
Pacamarra gave the council until Thursday, June 16, to comply with the order.
Wong, a casino junket operator, insisted that he did not violate the Anti-Money Laundering Act, adding that he has already returned to the government P38.28 million and $4.63 million he got from the laundered money.
He reiterated his statements in the Senate inquiry that it was former RCBC branch manager Maia Santos-Deguito who facilitated the transactions.
The other casino junket operator named respondent in the AMLC complaint, Weikang Xu, has not appeared before Department of Justice for the preliminary investigation hearings.
Deguito denied the charges and filed with the prosecutor her counter-affidavit also last month. She asked the DOJ to dismiss the charges for lack of probable cause.
She refuted allegation that she facilitated the laundering of the stolen money, insisting that it was former RCBC president Lorenzo Tan who ordered her to open the four fictitious accounts where the $80,884,641.63 stolen by hackers from the Bangladesh Bank went.
The former manager of the bank’s branch in Jupiter Street in Makati City stressed all the transactions in her branch had the approval of Tan, claiming that she is only being used as scapegoat by the bank officials to avoid criminal liabilities.
AMLC has already submitted its reply to Deguito’s answers last week. Pacamarra then ordered Deguito to submit her rejoinder in a hearing on June 20 before concluding the hearing and submitting the case for resolution.
The DOJ is also set to investigate the third batch of money laundering charges filed by AMLC against officers of remittance firm Philrem Service Corp., particularly its president Salud Bautista, chairman of the board and treasurer Michael “Concon” Bautista and anti-money laundering compliance officer Anthony Pelejo.