Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
The Philippines government has expended all-out cooperation to Bangladesh to recover $80m stolen fund of Bangladesh Bank (BB) went next after slipping through the Philippines financial system, officials of both countries said on Monday.
They said, cyber criminals had stolen the money from the BB’s account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on February 5, which was initially wired to the Philippines, going into four Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) foreign-currency accounts.
The accounts, under the names of Enrico Teodoro Vasquez, Alfred Santos Vergara, Michael Francisco Cruz and Jessie Christopher Lagrosas, received some $81 million believed to be BB funds stolen by hackers.
Those accounts were opened in May last year and never reported any activity until the February 5.
“The Philippines is cooperating with Bangladesh and will continue investigating until the funds are recovered,” Teresita Herbosa, the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Philippines, told reporters in Manila on Monday.
She said: Both the countries are working together to trace the money that entered illegally in the Philippine financial system.
As part of the cooperation, the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMCL) of Philippines earlier filed a case in this regard and obtained an order from a court there to freeze those accounts involved in laundering the hacked money.
Herbosa, a member of that country’s Anti-Money Laundering Council, said some of the stolen funds that entered the Philippine financial system will be recovered.
“I am sure somehow, some of the money will be recovered,” she said. When asked, Herbosa said, “Investigation into the alleged laundering is on and the AMCL is preparing to frame charges against a number of people allegedly involved in the case”.
“The Philippines government has already extended full cooperation to us to trace and recover the stolen fund went through to the country’s banking channel. Both governments are also cooperating on investigations to prevent a similar theft in the future,” BB spokesman Subhankar Saha told The New Nation on Monday.
Saha said the funds were taken out of its account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in early February using an interbank messaging system known as Swift.
About $100 million was moved via five transfer requests, with four ending up in bank accounts in the Philippines and another, for about $20 million going to an account in Sri Lanka.
The BB spokesman said that the Philippines government was serious in uncovering the truth regarding the alleged money laundering and taking tough steps to bring the culprits under the book.
Meanwhile, the Philippines Senate ‘Blue Ribbon Committee’ will hold a hearing on the cross-border money-laundering scheme today (Tuesday).
The Committee has summoned six individuals, including Maia Santos-Deguito, the RCBC Jupiter branch manager, who have been identified as among the potential conspirators to the $81-million money laundering scheme by the AMCL.
The suspected persons were asked to attend before the Senate Committee for hearing, according to media report.
“The Philippine Senate has started tracing where the stolen funds went next after slipping through the Philippines financial system,” the Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted Senator Serge Osmeña as saying on Monday. Asked if the money had been remitted elsewhere, Osmeña replied that it was being traced.
“We have no idea where the money went as of this time,” the senator added.
Osmeña, chair of the Senate committee on banks, financial institutions and currencies, said the Philippine Senate will also trace the four depositors who opened the US dollar bank accounts at the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp which received the stolen money.
