US jury indicts Napoles, five others for money laundering

A United States federal grand jury has indicted alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles and five others for money laundering by supposedly funneling some $20 million in Philippine public funds in and out of the US through a “multi-year bribery and fraud scheme.”

Napoles, her children Jo Christine, James Christopher, and Jeane Catherine; brother Reynald Luy Lim, and his wife Ana Marie, were charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, domestic money laundering, and international money laundering, the US Department of Justice said on Wednesday.

The jury found that the indicted individuals, as well as around 20 Philippine lawmakers and other government officials, converted to their own benefit millions of dollars in Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and transmitting approximately $20 million of the amount into the US “to purchase assets, including real property and luxury vehicles,” the Justice department noted in a statement.

The “fraudulently converted” money was paid to “dozens of non-governmental organizations” controlled by Napoles for projects that were not performed and were instead “diverted to kickbacks” for lawmakers and other state officials and “for the personal use of the Napoles family.”

Some $20 million of those funds, the statement said, were diverted to Philippine money remitters and then wired to Southern California bank accounts, “where the money was used to purchase real estate, shares in two businesses, two Porsche Boxsters, and finance the living expenses of three family members residing in the United States: Jeane Napoles, Reynald Lim, and Ana Lim.”

Even after Napoles was arrested in the Philippines, she and her family “attempted to quietly liquidate the assets, secretly repatriate most of the resulting funds back to the Philippines and to other accounts in the US and the United Kingdom, and disburse some of the funds” to her daughter Jeane, “who used the money to finance her lifestyle and open a fashion business,” the statement said.

A US district judge, James V. Selna, is handling a separate civil forfeiture case involving approximately $12.5 million in Southern California real estate that has been seized by the US Attorney’s Office.

“If the court orders the assets forfeited, the United States will work with Philippine officials in an attempt to return the stolen funds back to the Philippine government,” the statement said.

US Attorney Nick Hanna said that American authorities will work with their Philippine counterparts to extradite Napoles and her family to the US.

In the Philippines, Napoles faces five counts of the non-bailable offense of plunder and graft charges before six of the seven divisions of the anti-graft court, Sandiganbayan. She is detained at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City. —VDS, GMA News