Mainland: Allegations are “nonsense”
The Mainland Chinese government says there is no truth to speculation that Chinese nationals were involved in a money-laundering case in which $81 million was stolen from the Bangladesh Bank and processed through casinos in Manila, Philippines.
According to a recent testimony before the Philippine Senate, Philippine junket runner Kim Wong said he acted as an interpreter when two Chinese nationals, junket agent Ding Zhize and Gao Shuhua, asked the manager of a Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. branch to open accounts that processed the funds. Wong reportedly got $4.6 million for his company and an additional 450 million pesos (US$9.7 million) that was reportedly owed to him by Shuhua, and later pledged to return the money.
But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told reporters last week that the allegations of Chinese involvement were “complete nonsense” and “really irresponsible,” according to the Reuters news agency.
Philippine Senator Ralph Recto told Reuters, “The hacking was done, chances are, by Chinese hackers… Then they saw that, in the Philippines, RCBC was particularly vulnerable and they sent the money over here.”
The culprits attempted to transfer a total of $951 million from Bangladesh Bank at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in February. All but one of 35 attempted transfers were to Rizal; while the majority were blocked, $81 million was deposited in four accounts at one RCBC branch in Manila. “There are junket operators (in the Philippines) who are from Macau, so (the money) may find its way back to Macau,” Recto said, adding that he was simply “connecting the dots” in a matter that is still under investigation.
Of the $81 million, some $63 million was wired to the Midas and Solaire casinos, and an additional $18 million was sent to a remittance company called Philrem Service Corp., according to Wong. But Philrem Treasurer Michael Bautista refuted that claim, and told the committee he did not keep any of the funds.
In a March report, the U.S. State Department said the casino industry in the Philippines constitutes “a weak link” in the country’s anti-money laundering efforts, as gaming halls are not covered by the Anti-Money Laundering Act.
The Philippines Daily Star reports that the money was “channeled through local casinos and gambled by a network of at least 19 people.”
The Philippine Anti-Money Laundering Council will ask the courts to direct casinos and junket operators to recover and return as much of the stolen funds as possible to Bangladesh,
Silverio Benny J Tan, compliance officer at Bloomberry, said casinos have been made “a scapegoat in this unfortunate affair.”
“The casinos seem to be washing their hands of this mess,” said Benito Lim, a political science professor at the Ateneo de Manila University. “They’re depicting themselves as victims. But the government must plug the law’s loopholes by including casinos in the coverage of the Anti-Money Laundering Act.”
The Philippine Daily Inquirer reports that RCBC former branch manager Maia Santos-Deguito says she was just a “pawn in a high-stakes chess game played by giants in international banking and high finance.
“Truly, a crime of this magnitude could be possible only with the participation of people from the highest wealthy businessmen whose far-reaching powers and influence span several countries,” she said in her testimony.
The inquiry will resume April 12.
