Bangladesh welcomes Kim Wong’s offer to return millions

Bangladesh's ambassador to Manila on Tuesday welcomed businessman Kim Wong's offer to return millions of dollars and pesos believed to be part of the $81 million stolen from the country's bank account in New York and laundered in the Philippines.

Wong said he was willing to return $4.63 million that he picked up from remittance company Philrem Service Corp. and which is still at the Solaire Resort and Casino for safekeeping.

It was Philrem which wired the stolen funds from Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. to Solaire, the Wong-owned Eastern Hawaii Leisure Co. and casino junket operator Weikang Xu.

Wong also indicated that he would return for the P450 million he received as payment for the debt of Sua Hua Gao if it was proven to be sourced illegally.

"This is a positive step and we appreciate what the Senate is doing," Ambassador John Gomes said in an ambush interview after a Senate inquiry on the cyber bank heist.

Wong denied earlier in the day his involvement in the money laundering scheme as he tagged Sua Hua Gao from Beijing and a Macau associate identified only as Mr. Ding as the people who brought the dirty money into the country.

The businessman said that Eastern Hawaii got P1 billion of the stolen money, which was first deposited at the Jupiter branch of RCBC in Makati City before it was laundered in casinos. —NB, GMA News