Wong, Philrem butt heads over missing $17M

The Bautistas of Philrem Service Corp. and Kam Sin Wong of Eastern Hawaii Leisure Co. Ltd. butted heads over what happened to $17 million from the funds stolen from the Bangladesh Bank account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Philrem president and owner Salud Bautista claimed before the Senate blue ribbon committee on Tuesday that her company transferred all the funds to casino junket operator WeiKang Xu.

The money transfers were in several tranches from February 5 to 13, 2016, Bautista said. She alleged that Wong who is also a junket operator was present in all the transactions.

“Dineliver po namin lahat,” Bautista told the blue ribbon committee. “May mga dokumento po (ng mga transaksyon),” she said.

Wong, however, belied Bautista's testimony and claimed some $17 million remain with Philrem.

Wong explained and gave a rough breakdown of the transactions as follows:

• P1.365 billion went to Solaire Hotel and Casino

• P1 billion to Midas Hotel and Casino

• P100 million delivered personally by Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Jupiter branch manager Maia Santos-Deguito and Philrem’s Michael “Concon” Bautista (Salud's husband)

• P300 million and $5 million he personally fetched from the Bautista residence

In sum, the figures totaled around $64 billion.

“Seventeen million dollars na kina Concon,” Wong alleged, noting that the money was still with Philrem.

“I would like to deny the $17 million is with us,” Concon said. He emphasized that Philrem transferred all the funds to Xu.

Wong also claimed that he accepted the money not knowing it was part of the Bangladesh Bank heist.

Wong said he is willing to return some $4.63 million dollars from his commission as junket operator, particularly with the transactions involving Eastern Hawaii. – VDS, GMA News