AMLC files raps vs. RCBC branch manager over $81-M launder scheme

The Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) has filed complaints against Rizal Commercial Banking Corp.'s (RCBC) Makati branch manager and four others over a scheme to launder US $81 million from the Bangladesh Bank at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

In a joint complaint affidavit filed with the Department of Justice, the AMLC, through Vencent Salido and Rafael Echaluse of the council's Compliance and Investigation Group, accused Maia Santos Deguito of violating Section 4 (f) of the Anti-Money Laundering Act, as amended.

The AMLC also pressed charges against four individuals allegedly hiding under fictitious names Michael Francisco Cruz, Jessie Christopher Lagrosas, Alfred Santos Vergara, and Enrico Teodoro Vasquez.

Deguito allegedly facilitated the transfer of the laundered money from the Bangladesh Bank to multiple accounts under four fictitious names at the RCBC branch on Jupiter Street, Makati City last February.

From the multiple accounts, the money was allegedly consolidated into a single US dollar account in the name of Filipino-Chinese businessman William Go. The amount was then hastily withdrawn, converted into peso, and transferred to at least three casinos.

Go, who has already denied involvement in the scheme, was not included in the complaint.

The four accounts under fictitious names were opened on May 15, 2015, while Go's account was opened on Feb. 1, 2016. Inward remittances were credited to the accounts of Cruz, Lagrosas, and Vergara on February 5, 2016.

"An analysis of the transactions indicated that the US $15,215,977.26 also went to Go. The total amount of over-the-counter withdrawals made by Cruz et al on 5 February 2016 amounted to USD80,884,641.63 while Go's cash deposit for the same period and with the same RCBC Jupiter branch amounted to an identical USD80,884,641.63," read the complaint.

"The transactions of respondents Cruz, Lagrosas, Vergara and Vasquez, which were hastily made on 5 and 9 February 2016 constitute money laundering," it added.

‘Deguito knew’

The AMLC faulted Deguito for failing to verify the identities of the respondents within nine months from the time the accounts were opened.

"She even allowed respondent John Does to withdraw money stolen from Bangladesh Bank," the AMLC said.

"At the time she allowed the withdrawals, respondent Deguito already knew that the money was stolen from the Bangladesh Bank as there was already a request for stop payment," read the complaint.

"Despite that, respondent allowed and facilitated the withdrawal transactions of respondent John Does," it added.

Deguito along with her husband and a child were held at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) after boarding their flight to Japan last week.

Deguito's lawyer Ferdinand Topacio said Deguito was merely a fall guy in the scheme. "Do you think sa level ng bank manager, kaya niya ba ito mag-isa?" said Topacio. —ALG, GMA News