This is by far the biggest money-laundering case ever recorded in Philippine history. A Philippine bank and 3 casinos have been linked to a $100 million bank heist in Manhattan, New York. The Bangladesh Central Bank owns the stolen amount. Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) - which is partly owned by the influential family Yuchengco, Cathay Life (the biggest Taiwan life insurance company), and IFC (the World Bank's investment arm) - has stated that $81 million has been deposited in its Jupiter Branch in Makati City. The bank is now investigating the transaction while assuring their clients that the bank is cognizant of its obligations on bank secrecy. A local newspaper has reported that top officials of the bank knew about the transaction but the bank's president and CEO Lorenzo Tan denies the allegations. In the news reports, a document is said to have shown that the money laundered from the Bangladesh bank has been deposited to 5 bank accounts then they were transferred to Philrem, a foreign exchange broker, and subsequently converted to Philippine peso. The money was then transferred back to RCBC into the bank account of a Chinese-Filipino businessman, who moved the funds to 3 casinos namely Solaire, Midas, and City of Dreams. The 3 casinos are now under investigation by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI). Here's an article on this current issue: http://www.rappler.com/business/ind.../125227-rcbc-bangladesh-bank-money-laundering
The bank manager of the branch is now in hot water. She was not allowed to board a plane going to Japan. She said that, together with her husband and a child, were going to Disneyland to celebrate the birthday of their child. But airport authorities prevented her because of the money laundering issue that she has to face in court. According to the reports, the 3.8 billion pesos was a huge withdrawal that the bank's branch could not have handled for regular customers. Investigators are hinting that the branch manager is in cahoots with the money launderers.
Wow, I would think that since this crime incorporates so many countries and jurisdictions this might be a hard case to prosecute. I guess Interpol will have to be involved. I think that banking regulators from several companies would be involved in this, as this seems to be fraud on a massive scale. I would imagine that the bank manager knew all about this and was involved on some level with the money laundering scheme.
Well I cannot really say that I am surprised to hear news like this, because it really seems to happen almost every day. This is certainly a big one though, and there are a lot of actors at play here so I am kind of curious to see how this all plays out. I find it pretty hard to believe that these people knew nothing about money going from bank to bank to bank.
Is this story the same one as reported by Reuters -- http://www.bullmarketboard.com/threads/6929-Spelling-101-How-to-screw-up-a-heist -- a few days ago? Hackers couldn't spell...
Yes, this is the exact same story baudwalk. As what Corzhens said, the latest development in this very controversial issue is the prevention of the RCBCs Jupiter Branch manager Maia Santos Deguito from leaving the country by immigration officers. She and her family has already boarded a plane for Japan when immigration officers received a call ordering them to stop her from leaving the country as a response to a lookout bulletin order issued against her. William Go, a Filipino-Chinese businessman who is also being linked to this case has accused her for being the main person in the cross-border transfer of stolen money from the Bangladesh Central Bank. She is set to be called for a Senate probe anytime. Here's the latest on the story: http://news.abs-cbn.com/business/v1/03/12/16/rcbc-branch-manager-mulls-charges-over-offloading
I wonder why the hackers Reuters referred to weren't mentioned in the two stories you linked to in this thread. Embarrassment? Curious, indeed. I guess we'll have to wait for movie to learn the truth.
They will work their way back and find out who the hackers were. The complexity and the amount of people involved tells you that there had to be a lot of people in the process, and once you catch and charge one, they will talk until the whole network is understood. Pretty crazy to think they were almost going to get a billion dollars.
I noticed that too baudwalk but I think the main focus here in the Philippines right now is on finding out the real side of the story here and who the main players are. There's just too may people and companies involved that I'm also wondering how all the involved parties and countries would jive in their investigations. From New York to Bangladesh then to the Philippines. In my country alone, many names have already been linked to the crime. I'm now wondering how investigations are going in the other countries mentioned.
So I've seen on the local news that today is going to be the first among the series of senate probes regarding this case. The branch manager of the Jupiter Branch of RCBC Maia Santos Deguito is expected to air her side in front of the Senate investigating committee today. As the case unravels, more names are coming out into the scene and more details are being discovered one-by-one. One of the Senators who is part of the investigating committee just found out from AMLC that the CCTV cameras of the specific RCBC branch were not functioning during the day the $81 million stolen funds were withdrawn from the bank. 4 names have also come out as the recipients of the laundered money which was divided into 4 different accounts. The four people who reportedly owned the bank accounts were Enrico Teodoro Vasquez, Alfred Santos Vergara, Michael Francisco Cruz and Jessie Christopher Lagrosas. What's more suspicious is that the documents they have submitted as part of the bank's records were fake. Their addresses are also fake. They have initially presented themselves as employees but the employers they have stated denied being their employers. These details only serve more evidence that there were shortcomings or connivance within the RCBC and the account holders. One of the Senators has even stated that it's impossible for that kind of big amount to have only passed through the bank manager's hands. There's suppose to be approval from the higher officials if such big amounts are involved in the bank's transactions. Let's wait and see how the Senate probe will go today. Here's an article on the latest: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/773491/broken-cctv-cameras-fake-documents-raise-doubts-on-rcbc-branch
