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RCBC manager ordered P600M to be released to Chinese man
The branch manager of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. ordered a remittance firm to release P600 million in cash to a Chinese man, the president of a remittance company told the Senate blue ribbon committee on Tuesday.
The money was supposedly stolen from the Bangladesh Bank funds deposited at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and diverted to various bank accounts at the RCBC branch on Jupiter Street in Makati City.
During Tuesday's Senate hearing, Philrem Service Corp. president Salud Bautista said the instruction to deliver P600 million in cash to one Wei Kang Xu came from Maia Santos-Deguito, manager of the RCBC branch on Jupiter Street.
Santos-Deguito denied she knew Wei, and invoked her right against self incrimination when Senator Sergio Osmeña, vice chairman of the committee, asked her if indeed she order the funds to be released.
Bautista, however, confirmed Osmeña's information that her remittance firm delivered $18 million to Wei from February 5 to February 13, 2016.
Eighty-one million dollars were supposedly stolen from the account of the Bangladesh Bank in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and allegedly moved to five accounts in the RCBC branch.
Committee chairman Sen. TG Guingona thumbed down a request for an executive session in connection with the probe.
Guingona did not say who made the request, but said he "cannot agree to an executive session because subject funds belong to the Bangladesh government which did not invoke confidentiality."
Bank secrecy law does not apply
Bangladesh officials were in the gallery to observe the proceedings.
"The bank secrecy law does not apply in this case," Guingona said, noting that the Bangladesh Central Bank is in fact requesting for assistance for the return of the stolen funds.
Bautista also alleged before the committee that her other accounts – business and personal were closed by RCBC despite having been excluded from a freeze order requested by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) before the Court of Appeals
"The only bank that closed my account is RCBC," Bautista said. Bautista noted her RCBC bank account was unilaterally closed on March 1.
The AMLC has filed complaints against Santos-Deguito and four others over a scheme to launder $81 million from the Bangladesh Bank account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
The council also pressed charges against four individuals, supposedly hiding under the fictitious names Michael Francisco Cruz, Jessie Christopher Lagrosas, Alfred Santos Vergara, and Enrico Teodoro Vasquez. – with Jon Viktor Cabuenas/MarkMerueñas/ALG/KBK/VDS/JST, GMA News
