A petition for a civil forfeiture filed by the country’s Anti Money Laundering Council (AMLC) in May was granted a by a trial court, which covers the $15 million handed over by casino junket operator Kim Wong, the local media reports.
Wong, a Chinese-born Filipino businessman, during his first deposition before the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee blamed two Chinese businessmen for bringing in the stolen $81 million into Philippines.
He then admitted to receiving 1 billion pesos, more than $20 million, through the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp (RCBC), but claimed he did not know that it was connected to the heist. He returned $15 million to the authorities in portions.
Bangladesh has to file a third-party claim in 15 days to get the millions kept in the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the central bank of the Philippines, said AMLC Executive Director Julia Bacay-Abad.
Ambassador Gomes said he was ‘still puzzled’ how the RCBC quickly processed Bangladesh’s money through withdrawals from Feb 9 to 13 in complete disregard of the stop payment order issued by the Federal Reserve Bank on Feb 8.
The scandal resulted in the resignation of RCBC president, CEO Lorenzo Tan, and bank treasurer Raul Tan. RCBC Jupiter branch manager Maia Santos-Deguito, one of the central figures of the senate’s inquiry, was dismissed along with customer relation manager Angela Torres.
“The president and treasurer resigned. We want to find out what is their accountability because the image of the Philippines has been damaged. The Federal Reserve Bank is upset on how a huge chunk of the money came through RCBC,” said Gomes.