RCBC bank manager held at NAIA no longer in BI custody

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) said Friday evening that the bank manager it earlier barred from leaving the country is no longer in its custody.

BI spokesperson Nikki Reyes said that they cannot give an official statement yet, but confirmed that Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) Makati branch manager Maia Santos-Deguito is no longer with the bureau.

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

According to a GMA News source, she was shown a letter from the Anti-Money Laundering Council requesting the Bureau of Immigration to bar her from leaving the country.

After conferring with her lawyer, Deguito left the plane.

The holdout happened on the same day that Filipino-Chinese businessman William S. Go tagged her in a money laundering scheme.

Deguito allegedly opened multiple accounts at the RCBC branch on Jupiter Street, Makati City on February 23, 2016 in a scheme to launder $81 million from the Bangladesh Bank at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

RCBC was alerted by Go's lawyer Ramon S. Esguerra after Santos-Deguito offered the businessman P10 million to go along with the scheme.

Go has denied involvement in the scheme.

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. —Jessica Bartolome/JST, GMA News