Kim Wong Names 2 Foreigners Who Brought In USD81M Into Philippines

Businessman Kim Wong on Tuesday denied involvement in bringing in USD81 million stolen funds from the Bank of Bangladesh into the Philippine financial system, saying two foreigners did it through the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp (RCBC) Jupiter branch in Makati City.

At the resumption of the Senate hearing, Wong presented to the Senate Blue Ribbon committee a sealed envelope containing the names of the two foreigners.

Asked by the senators to open the envelope and reveal the identities of the two, Wong identified them as Ding Xi Xie and Xua Hua Gao who told him they would bring in “huge” money to the Philippines.

”First of all, I have nothing to do with the falsification of documents to bring in the money in the country. I don’t know where the USD81 million came from,” Wong said in a prepared statement.

”Second, two foreigners brought the USD81 million in the country. One of them has been in and out of the Philippines and is a known junket agent and high roller,” he added.

Wong, a junket operator in the Midas and Solaire casinos, said he met Ding from Macao only last February 4 in Solaire while he knew Gao, who is from Beijing, for eight years already.

Wong, owner of the Eastern Hawaii Leisure Company, claimed that Gao borrowed to him PHP450 million which the latter lost in the casinos.

Wong said it was Gao who opened four bank accounts using fictitious names with the RCBC Jupiter Branch under branch manager Maia Santos-Deguito who allegedly forged the bank accounts to receive and withdrew the stolen USD81 million funds.

“It was also Maia who pursued all means to release the money from the bank,” Wong said.

Deguito did not attend the third Senate hearing on the controversy due to health problems.

Wong denied Deguito’s claim that he referred the five new accounts.

Wong said USD63 million of the total USD81 million went to the Solaire and Midas casinos while the remaining USD17 million is still with the Philrem Service Corporation, a remittance company used to convert the stolen funds into peso.

Michael Bautista of PhilRem said not a single cent of the USD81 million has been left already with their company.

Wong said he picked up a total of PHP300 million and USD5 million on three separates dates (Feb. 9, 10 and 14) from Michael “Con-con” Bautista’s house.

Chinese hackers reportedly stole the USD81 million from the account of the Bank of Bangladesh in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York last Feb. 5 and transferred to the four accounts of Michael F. Cruz, Jessie C. Lagrosas, Alfred S. Vergara and Enrico T. Vasquez in the RCBC Jupiter branch in Makati City.

Meanwhile, Wong said RCBC president Lorenzo Tan has nothing to do with entry of the stolen USD81 million funds to the RCBC. (PNA) JMC/JFM