Deguito claims other RCBC higher-ups were aware of Bangladesh Bank's $81M

Sacked Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) Jupiter branch manager Maia Santos-Deguito on Tuesday implicated more officers of the bank into the $81-million money laundering scheme, claiming they were privy to the transactions.

During the Senate blue ribbon committee's fifth hearing, Deguito claimed she got a phone call from RCBC District Head Nestor Pineda asking her if she could hold any transactions regarding four accounts in her branch under the names Michael F. Cruz, Jessie C. Lagrosas, Alfred S. Vergara, and Enrico T. Vasquez.

The accounts – already established to be fictitious – are said to be the initial storing ground for the $81 million stolen from the Bangladesh Bank account with the Federla Reserve Bank of New York.

“Sabi ko, ‘Bakit iho-hold? Kung gusto mong i-hold, i-email mo ako.’ But he didn’t email me,” Deguito told the committee, noting that since she did not receive any email, she assumed that the transactions were cleared by her higher-ups.

Stop payment

A few days later, on February 9, Deguito alleged she received stop payment requests to hold the funds left in the accounts. But the money deposited in the accounts was already withdrawn and with remittance firm PhilRem Service Corp.

Some of the money was also deposited into the William Go account, also the with RCBC Jupiter Street branch.

At that point, Deguito said she informed RCBC Senior Vice President and Director for Regional Sales Brigitte Capina of her concerns and she was referred to EVP and Treasury Group Head Raul Victor Tan.

“Sabi ko ‘Sir, may problema ako. ‘Di ko ma-recall 'yung four (accounts) pero andun pa ‘yung pera (sa PhilRem at sa Go account).’ Sabi niya,'Di na natin problema ‘yun, problema na ng Bangladesh',” Deguito said.

“Wala akong authority to withhold. Even sila, sinasabi na wala silang power to do that. Immediately after I got the recall message, nagsabi naman ako, eh. You can base it on the screenshots of text messages I sent you. Ininform ko sila. February 9 palang alam na nilang may problema, but they still continued to trade the dollar,” she said. – VDS, GMA News