Staff Reporter :The Philippines government is taking tough steps about the recovery of $81 million crossborder money laundering scam and in order to recover the hacked money it is also cooperating with the Bangladesh central bank.The amount was transferred to the Philippines Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) branch in Makati City by unknown computer hackers from an account of Bangladesh Bank (BB) maintained with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.As part of the move, the immigration authorities of Philippines prevented Maia Santos-Deguito, Manager of the RCBC branch, from leaving the country suspecting her involvement in the scam.Deguito, who is now at the center of a money laundering scandal, tried to leave the Philippines on Friday but was taken off her plane by immigration officers at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), according media reports.She was on board Philippine Airlines Flight 432 to Tokyo together with her husband and son when immigration authorities came aboard and took them off the plane. Officials of the Philippines immigration department said, she was barred from leaving the country ahead of a Senate investigation into her alleged involvement in the scam. Nikki Reyes, spokesperson for the immigration bureau, said Deguito had been included in the immigration lookout list on orders of the Department of Justice and so they prevented her to leave the country. “The manager was undergoing interrogation after being detained from the airport,” an immigration official, preferring anonymity, told this to a local media. Serge Osmeña III, who is leading a Senate investigation into the alleged laundering of $81 million stolen from the US account of the Bangladesh central bank through the Philippine financial system, had asked the justice department to stop Deguito from leaving the country.The Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) and the National Bureau of Investigation of Philippines are looking into the operation to launder the stolen money through the country’s financial system.The Senate blue ribbon committee will open its own investigation on Tuesday next week.In another development, the authorities of RCBC on Friday sent its president and CEO Lorenzo Tan to force leave to give the bank a free hand in investigating the alleged money laundering.The authorities of RCBC have already launched an investigation into the alleged money-laundering scheme by their staffs. Earlier, Lorenzo Tan has denied knowledge of the scheme saying that it’s an outright lie. “I condemn as malicious and actionable insinuations that the top management of the bank knew of and tolerated alleged money laundering activities in one branch,” Tan said in a statement. “I will fully cooperate with all ongoing inquiries and believe that I and consequently the bank’s management will be fully vindicated,” he said. “The bank’s board thanked him for his gentlemanly and decent gesture but said their trust in him is intact and unshaken,” he said.Meanwhile, a Filipino businessman, who is among those probed for stealing $81 million from Bangladesh Bank, has denied his involvement, reports the Daily Inquirer.William Go, whose company Centurytex deals with importing garments, has been identified by Philippines authorities among the six people involved in electronic fraud and laundering of funds wired from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.At a media conference on Friday, Go’s lawyer said that the accounts in his client’s name with the RCBC were “bogus” and Go’s signatures were forged by the branch Manager Maia-Santos Deguito. “Ms Santos [Deguito] admitted to me that she opened Centurytex’s RCBC accounts to facilitate the deposit of a substantial amount of US dollar remittances allegedly coming from Bangladesh, which she later converted to Philippine pesos.She said her actions were all cleared and allowed by RCBC head office,” the Inquirer report quoted Go saying citing a statement that was distributed to the media.Go did not appear before the media for security reasons, his lawyer Ramon Esguerra said.”The Centurytex account was the same one where all four accounts that received the $81 million remittance now under investigation were consolidated, with the dollar deposits converted into pesos and transferred to other banks,” says the report by Inquirer.Go’s counsel told the media that the RCBC official through another bank manager whom he declined to identify, requested a meeting with his client and during that meeting on Feb 23, she supposedly confessed to having opened an account in Go’s name.Esguerra claimed his client was offered “millions” to “officially” close the account after RCBC started an investigation over the money-laundering.”There were overtures. He [Go] was offered at first 10 million pesos. When he refused, it was increased to 20 million, which was again refused by my client.”The lawyer denied that Go had sent Deguito a text message instructing her to transfer funds.Esguerra said that his client claims he did not know the three other people linked to scam, but is acquainted with Chinese-Filipino businessman Kim Wong.Go and Deguito, however, had known each other, since the latter worked for East West Bank before joining RCBC, he added.Esguerra said they were suing Deguito for falsification of documents and were looking into filing charges against RCBC, says the report.
