Bangladesh wants the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) to shoulder the missing chunk of the $81 million (around ?4 billion) stolen from its central bank in a cyber heist in February.
A high-level delegation of Bangladeshi officials is in Manila this week to seek help from the Philippine government in filing criminal and civil charges against the Yuchengco-owned bank, Philippine media said.
“It is clearly established that RCBC was very much involved in the scam, and they have admitted their liability,” Law Minister Anisul Huq said at a press briefing on Tuesday.
“There remains $66 million (approximately P3.3 billion) and we have come here to recover that,” said Huq.
An inquiry by the Senate and an investigation by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) both found RCBC had committed serious lapses, Huq said, allowing hackers to hide away their loot in fictitious bank accounts in the bank’s Jupiter branch in Makati City.
RCBC also allowed the money to be withdrawn, even though it had already received stop orders from the Bangladesh Bank.
Huq said RCBC had effectively admitted to these lapses by agreeing to pay the BSP’s record P1-billion penalty.
He said, then-RCBC President Lorenzo Tan had said earlier in a Senate hearing that the bank could pay back the money if it was found guilty of money laundering.
“If we are found liable, yes, I will recommend to the board that we set aside a certain sum of money to give back,” Tan said in April.
Huq said, “On that premise, RCBC should pay the money back to Bangladesh.”
The $81-million scandal – the largest money laundering case in the country’s history – has stretched on for months, but the money trail has long gone cold.
After the money was withdrawn from RCBC, it was converted to pesos through remittance firm PhilRem Service Corp. and then gambled away at several casinos. Only $15 million (around P746 million) has been found and returned to Bangladesh so far. Casino junket operator Kim Wong returned $4.63 million (around ?230 million) and P488 million, claiming he didn’t know it was dirty money. About $2.7 million (around P134 million) is frozen in Solaire Resorts and Casino by a court order, while another $17 million (around P845 million) was allegedly kept by PhilRem operators Salud and Michael Bautista.
Huq said, however, that those details were irrelevant. Bangladesh is setting its sights on RCBC and RCBC alone.
“I expect RCBC to take the entire liability. The money came in through RCBC. We do not need to know what happened to the money later on,” he claimed.
In a statement on Tuesday, the lender categorically denied it was liable to make any payments.
“RCBC is not the proximate cause of the theft. They have no case against us,” RCBC external counsel Thea Daep said.
Daep even turned the tables on the Bangladesh Bank, saying initial findings showed central bank insiders had a hand in the hacking. She challenged Bangladesh Bank to bare the results of its own probe and “show… who really stole from them.”
Huq shook off these claims and said RCBC was in no position to make demands on the Bangladeshi government. He declined to comment on the Bangladesh Bank’s ongoing investigation into the cyber heist.
The Bangladesh Law Minister also requested the Philippine Senate to re-open the investigation on the cyber-heist.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Ambassador John Gomes said the Philippine government has been supportive of recovery efforts. The delegation met with the Finance and Justice Departments, as well as the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. It is scheduled to meet with the BSP on Thursday.
Huq said that any legal actions taken against RCBC would be coursed through the Philippine government.
“Both civil and criminal proceedings are being initiated… Government officials assured us due process would be followed,” he said.
