Kim Wong, Angela Torres new resource persons in Senate money laundering hearing

The alleged mastermind of the $81-million Bangladesh Bank heist, businessman Kam Sin Wong alias Kim Wong, and Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Jupiter Branch senior customer relations officer Angela Torres appeared as new resource persons in Tuesday's Senate hearing.

Wong has been accused of masterminding the laundering scheme after terminated RCBC Jupiter Branch manager Maia Santos-Deguito was reported to have testified against him in an executive session with senators on March 17.

"I wouldn't say least guilty but [Deguito's] not the most guilty. May orchestrator dito, may mastermind. And right now it's looking like it's Kim Wong," Senator Sergio Osmeña III told reporters.

Wong is the president and general manager of Eastern Hawaii Leisure Company Ltd., a Hong-Kong based company operating in the Cagayan Economic Processing Zone and one of the casinos said to have received the stolen funds.

He was not able to testify during the two previous hearings as he was in Singapore for medical treatment.

In a statement last Tuesday through his legal counsel, Wong said that he is ready and willing to testify before the Senate.

"He will answer everything. He will not invoke his right to remain silent," Wong's lawyer Victor Fernandez said in a Reuters report. 

Torres has been accused of being an accomplice of Deguito in committing the falsification of commercial documents which were used to open the accounts where the money was initially wired to.

Filipino-Chinese businessman William So Go, one of the supposed account holders, filed criminal complaints against Deguito and Torres before the Makati Prosecutor's Office Prosecutor's Office on March 18. 

"Puro kasinungalingan ang sinasabi nila. Simula sa umpisa, wala akong kinalaman diyan. Napatunayan na ang mga pirma ng mga bank account ay peke," Go said.

The employment of Torres, along with that of Degutio, was terminated by RCBC also on March 18, after both officers were found to have been involved in the scheme. 

"RCBC has terminated Maia Deguito and Angela Torres, the top two officials of the bank's Jupiter branch, for violating bank policies and procedure and falsification of commercial documents," it said.

Former senator Rene Saguisag, acting as counsel for Deguito, said that his client could not make it to the hearing because she was not feeling well.

Wong and Go have also arrived at the Senate for the hearing. —ALG, GMA News