Nikkei Asia Review , Manila :
Can a multimillion-dollar dirty money transaction be orchestrated by the manager of an ordinary bank branch? Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., the former employer of an RCBC Makati City branch head Maia Santos-Deguito, thinks it can.
On March 22, RCBC fired Deguito, the woman who is swirling at the center of an $81-million bank heist-the one successful part of audacious attempts by hackers to steal $951 million from Bangladesh Bank’s foreign reserves at the New York Federal Reserve Bank in the U.S.
RCBC sacked its embattled employee amid ongoing investigations into the scandal by the Philippine Anti-Money Laundering Council and the senate. RCBC officials have suggested that Deguito independently authorized the transfer of the stolen funds into her branch. Deguito, meanwhile, has claimed that two other senior officials, including
RCBC president and chief executive Lorenzo Tan, sanctioned the transactions.
“It’s getting deeper and both sides are firing missiles at each other,” Senator Teofisto Guingona III, who chairs the senate committee investigating the scandal, said on March 17, following a hearing during which Deguito told her side of the story in a closed “executive session” with senators.
The AMLC on March 11 sued Deguito before the Department of Justice for facilitating a money laundering offense. If found guilty, she faces imprisonment of up to seven years and a fine of up to 3 million pesos ($64,500).
Guingona said his committee needs to conduct more hearings before fully unlocking the truth of who is behind the heist-all of which leaves RCBC investors hanging on anxiously.
The bank’s shares closed up 1.7% at 29.60 pesos ($0.64) on March 23 — the last trading day prior to the holy week break-having fallen to 29.10 on March 22, a multi-year low. Since the Philippine Daily Inquirer broke the news about the money laundering issue on Feb. 29, RCBC’s shares have lost 10.3% of their value.
Can a multimillion-dollar dirty money transaction be orchestrated by the manager of an ordinary bank branch? Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., the former employer of an RCBC Makati City branch head Maia Santos-Deguito, thinks it can.
On March 22, RCBC fired Deguito, the woman who is swirling at the center of an $81-million bank heist-the one successful part of audacious attempts by hackers to steal $951 million from Bangladesh Bank’s foreign reserves at the New York Federal Reserve Bank in the U.S.
RCBC sacked its embattled employee amid ongoing investigations into the scandal by the Philippine Anti-Money Laundering Council and the senate. RCBC officials have suggested that Deguito independently authorized the transfer of the stolen funds into her branch. Deguito, meanwhile, has claimed that two other senior officials, including
RCBC president and chief executive Lorenzo Tan, sanctioned the transactions.
“It’s getting deeper and both sides are firing missiles at each other,” Senator Teofisto Guingona III, who chairs the senate committee investigating the scandal, said on March 17, following a hearing during which Deguito told her side of the story in a closed “executive session” with senators.
The AMLC on March 11 sued Deguito before the Department of Justice for facilitating a money laundering offense. If found guilty, she faces imprisonment of up to seven years and a fine of up to 3 million pesos ($64,500).
Guingona said his committee needs to conduct more hearings before fully unlocking the truth of who is behind the heist-all of which leaves RCBC investors hanging on anxiously.
The bank’s shares closed up 1.7% at 29.60 pesos ($0.64) on March 23 — the last trading day prior to the holy week break-having fallen to 29.10 on March 22, a multi-year low. Since the Philippine Daily Inquirer broke the news about the money laundering issue on Feb. 29, RCBC’s shares have lost 10.3% of their value.
