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Ex-RCBC exec Deguito seeks reversal of money laundering conviction


Former Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) branch manager Maia Deguito has asked a Makati court to set aside her money laundering conviction in connection with the cyber heist of $81 million from Bangladesh’s central bank in 2016.

Deguito has filed a motion for reconsideration assailing the decision of the Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 149 that sentenced her to four to seven years in prison for each of eight counts and ordered her to pay more than $109 million in fine.

She urged the court to issue another order acquitting her of the same alleged offenses.

Counsel for the former bank manager argued that Judge Cesar Untalan "misunderstood the meaning of a money laundering offense under the law" and "misappreciated the facts and the evidence" involved in the cases.

The court also imposed the "wrong penalty" on Deguito, the motion dated January 25 said. It argued the maximum fine that could be imposed for the offenses Deguito was convicted of was P24 million.

Deguito was accused of facilitating the transfer of laundered money from the Bangladesh Bank to multiple accounts under four fictitious names at the RCBC branch on Jupiter Street, Makati City in February 2016.

The money transferred to the accounts was allegedly consolidated into one US dollar account in the name of Filipino-Chinese businessman William Go, withdrawn, converted into peso, and then transferred to at least three casinos.

Earlier this month, the Makati court ruled that Deguito knew of the "illegal source" of the funds and facilitated the questioned transactions.

But in her motion for reconsideration, Deguito argued that the judge had simply presumed that she had prior knowledge of the nature of the source of the funds.

"More important, the Honorable Court's surmises and conjectures were baseless and even contrary to the evidence," the pleading stated.

The motion also stated that the evidence by the prosecution and the defense show it was not Deguito who transacted the withdrawals and deposits involved in the cases. — BM, GMA News

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