Suspects In USD 81-M Money Laundering To Face More Charges

The Anti-Money Laundering Council (AML) will file more charges against individuals found to have participated in the alleged laundering of about USD 81 million stolen from the Bangledesh Bank (BB) in February 2016.

Insurance Commissioner and AMLC member Emmanuel Dooc said their investigation on the crossborder transaction continues but he declined to give specifics.

“As I’ve said investigation is going on and dependent on the outcome of that we may also file cases against other parties,” he told reporters during the suspension of the Senate hearing on the issue Thursday afternoon.

Last Tuesday, the AMLC filed money laundering charges against five individuals allegedly involved in the case.

These are Maia Santos Deguito, manager of the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) Jupiter, Makati branch, and the four individuals whose account received the alleged stolen money namely Michael Francisco Cruz, Jessie Christopher Lagrosas, Alfred Santos Vergara, and Enrico Teodoro Vasquez.

Dooc said charges were filed against the five because “these were the parties that appear to be involved here based on our investigation.”

He declined to give hints on who the additional persons to be filed cases with.

“Definitely we will go after anyone who will appear to have a hand on this scheme, in this effort to commit money laundering,” he said.

“We will not stop to the level of branch manager because we have that mandate,” he added.

The hearing was suspended past 3 p.m. when majority of the Senators decided to have an executive session to hear what Deguito had to say.

Deguito, during the day’s hearing as well as in the first hearing last Monday, said she was ready to tell the Senators all that she knew about the case but only in an executive session.

The hearing resumed before 6:30 p.m. (PNA) RMA/JSV/EDS