Deguito named 2 senior RCBC execs who could be part of bank heist —Guingona

Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) Jupiter branch manager Maia Santos-Deguito named two senior bank executives who could be part of the $81-million Bangladesh bank heist during the Senate hearing on Thursday, said Sen. Teofisto Guingona III.

“It seems like there are bigger people involved,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the hearing.

He declined to elaborate, but noted that Deguito named two executives of RCBC who may have had a hand in the transactions.

Deguito had requested and was granted an executive session where she agreed to a tell-all meeting with the committee.

Asked about the proceedings, Guingona noted the investigation was “still a long way... Mahaba 'yung trail from New York. Two officials of RCBC (were named)... Senior executives,” the committee chairman said, without going into details.

“Look at what happened with the $81 million. You make it past Fed, that’s a very large syndicate... This is the first time na ninakaw ‘yung pera and umiyak ‘yung ninakawan,” he said.

Agarrado said, Deguito said

The RCBC Jupiter branch manager was pinned by new witnesses who testified at Thursday’s Senate hearing that Deguito was aware of all the transactions regarding the Bangladesh Bank's funds.

“Sabi niya, "I would rather do this than me being killed or my family',” former RCBC Jupiter branch customer service head Romualdo Agarrado quoted Santos-Deguito as having said at the height of the money transfers to other accounts and people involved in the transactions.

Agarrado claimed that Deguito ignored bank protocols and a request to stop the release of millions of dollars to local bank accounts as she feared for her life.

Agarrado was referring to the money transfers involving the $81-million stolen from the Bangladesh Central Bank's account with the US Federal Reserve Bank in New York.

The money was supposedly moved from New York to RCBC accounts under the names Michael F. Cruz, Jessie C. Lagrosas, Alfred S. Vergara, and Enrico T. Vasquez.

William So Go

Some $66 million of the Bangladesh fund was then withdrawn and consolidated in another account under the name William So Go – businessman who signed a waiver on bank secrecy law for RCBC accounts under his name.

Go, however, claimed that accounts did not actually belong to him.

This was echoed by RCBC Legal and Regulatory Affairs Head Maria Cecilia Fernandez-Estavillo, who claimed before the committee on Thursday that the supposed accounts of Go were fictitious.

“Under independent verification, the addresses of William Go are false in those accounts... The signatures do not seem to match the signatures in other accounts in Trinoma,” Estavillo said.

She also alleged that Deguito forged Go's signature in withdrawal slips and drove away with P20 million from the questionable peso account.

The $66 million from the Go account was then supposedly converted into pesos and transferred to casino junket operator WeiKang Xu via the remittance firm Philrem Service Corp.

Some $15 million also eventually went through Philrem, Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) Executive Director Julia Bacay-Abad to the committee.

No death threats

For her part, Deguito denied that there were any threats made against her and her family. “Hindi po... Wala... ” she told the blue ribbon committee.

Deguito also claimed that the four accounts, which originally received the money from New York, were referred to RCBC by a certain Kim Wong – a friend of bank President and CEO Lorenzo V. Tan.

Tan denied Deguito's claim, saying he saw Wong on rare occasions over the past 12 years.

Bangladesh assistance

The Senate conducted the investigation after Dhaka sought the help of Philippine authorities to recover the funds stolen from its offshore account.

The Bangladesh central bank keeps the current account at the New York Fed to settle its international transactions.

At the same hearing, Philrem pledged to return more than P10 million to the Bangladeshi government. The money consisted of hanlding fees the remmitance firm earned from the transactions involving the $81 million.

“We will prepare a check as soon as the Bangladeshi delegation will confirm who the payee will be. That check will represent every centavo our company earned from the series of transactions,” Philrem President Salud Bautista said.

The check is “not only... an apology but... a symbol of a Filipino company willing to find justice. We computed we will be returning P10,474.654,” according to the Philrem executive.

The Senate has set the next hearing 11 a.m. on March 29. —BAP/KG/VDS/ALG, GMA News