- The AMLC’s pursuit to investigate the roots of the laundering scam has hit a dead end with the casinos
- The stolen money that was deposited to an RCBC account ended up in casinos, particularly Solaire
- From there a portion of the money was played as chips and the remaining was delivered to a Chinese national in cash
The pursuit is still on but the authorities seem to have hit a dead end when they reached the casinos.
In its mission to trace the roots of the $ 81 million stolen form the central bank of Bangladesh that ended up in the Philippine banking system, the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) claims the money trail ended with several casinos.
In the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s ongoing monitoring of the case, Julia Abad, the AMLC executive director, said that their council can no longer trace the funds after it went to a junket operator and two casinos.
“Our money trail ended there, with the casinos. Since the casino operators are not covered by the [Anti-Money Laundering Act], we cannot require them to submit information pertaining to these junket operators or casino players,” Abad told the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee headed by Senator Teofisto Guingona III.
Meanwhile, last Tuesday, Atiur Rahman, the governor of the Bangladesh Bank, the country’s central bank, resigned after he was heavily criticized for the way he handled the case.
Rahman described what happened to the public as a “terrorist attack.” He said that his silence on the matter over the past few days have been for the interest of the country.
From February 4 to 6 of this year, hackers have apparently tried to steal $ 951 million from a Bangladesh Bank deposit at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. They then channeled the funds to bank accounts in the Philippines and Sri Lanka.
The criminal activity was detected and the United States bank immediately stopped a transfer of $ 850 million. A bank in Sri Lank also rejected a $ 20 million transfer because the beneficiary’s name was misspelled. However, the remaining $ 81 million was successfully transferred to four accounts at a Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation branch in Makati City in the Philippines. It was quickly transferred to a fraudulent account within the same branch. Through the help of a remittance company, funds were converted to the local currency for laundering at local casinos.
The AMLC claims that the $ 29 million of the $ 81 million stolen by the hackers ended up in Solaire Resort and Casino through interbank funds delivery.
Benny Tan, corporate secretary of Bloomberry Resorts, the company managing Solaire, said that that $ 29 million went to the account of the casino already in Philippine peso in the amount of P1.365 billion.
An ABS-CBN News report said that Tan was asked if the management did not find this transaction suspicious.
“It came in pesos. It was remittance for the account of a junket operator and the players. It was Chinese New Year, so the expectation was there would be more play during the period,” Tan answered.
Cristino Naguiat Jr., the chairman of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) said that the state-owned gaming corporation has launched an investigation on the $ 29 million remittance.
“With regard to amount remitted sa [Solaire operator] Bloomberry, lahat po ito na-monitor na nilaro. Lahat na-monitor na naging dead chips, non-cashable chips, so nilaro ito sa casino,” Naguiat said.
(All of the money remitted to Bloomberry was played. It was monitored and it became dead chips, non-cashable chips, so the chips were played in the casino.)
Another amount of $ 21 million from the stolen funds was sent to Eastern Hawaii Leisure Co. and another $ 30 million went to Chinese national Weikang Xu; a junket operator.
In his statement to the Philippine Senate, a representative from Philrem, the remittance firm, said the amount delivered to Xu was in cash. This is in compliance with the instructions of Maia Deguito, RCBC’s branch manager.
Abad said this is what makes tracing the money trail even more difficult.
“As the evidence will show, the money was delivered to him in cash. We were not able to identify any bank account in his name,” she said.
Post a Comment