Officials call for change to AMLA
Philippine junket runner Kim Wong, implicated in the theft of $81 million in funds stolen from the Bangladesh Bank, says he’s an innocent man, and has pledged to return up to $14.3 million he got from two men he suggests were responsible for the theft.
According to Bloomberg News, in testimony before the Philippine Senate last week, Wong said he acted as an interpreter when the Chinese nationals, junket agent Ding Zhize and Wong friend Gao Shuhua, asked the manager of a Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. branch to open the accounts. For his trouble, Wong 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.
“I had nothing to do with the actual opening of accounts,” Wong said. “I had nothing to do with the falsification of bank documents so the money could get in, and I don’t know where the $81 million came from.” He added that “two foreigners” were culpable in bringing the funds to the Philippines; one of them, a junket operator from Beijing, introduced Wong to the second man, described as a Macau junket operator who told Wong he could bring high rollers to Manila.
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.
Philippine Anti Money Laundering Council regulators said Wong is president and general manager of Eastern Hawaii Leisure Co. Ltd., a casino operator that received 1 billion pesos (US$21.6 million) from Rizal Bank through Philrem in February.
“I’m also a victim because casino is my business,” Wong told Philippine network ABS-CBN in a broadcast interview. “I don’t know where the money came from.”
Lawyer Silverio Benny Tan, representing Solaire operator Bloomberry Resorts Corp., confirmed that some P1.36 billion went through the casino, most of them consolidated into the account of “a big-ticket foreign junket operator” on order by Ding. On March 10, Tan said, Solaire froze Ding’s accounts, which held a total of P108.696 million or $2.34 million. “We are waiting for a proper court order on how to dispose of it,” Tan told the Senate.
According to the Nikkei Asian Review, Bangladesh Ambassador to the Philippines John Gomes said the probe is “going in the right direction.”
“At least for starters, something positive happened,” agreed Senator Teofisto Guingona III, chairman of the committee investigating the theft. “We are able to return a certain amount, which presumably would not have been unearthed had we not had this hearing.”
Asked if Bangladesh Bank would accept the money from the Philippine central bank, Gomes said, “Definitely—it’s our money.”
Officials commenting on the case in recent weeks have called for a change in the country’s Anti-Money Laundering Act, which currently does not apply to casinos. The public advisory group Foundation for Economic Freedom has joined the call. Chairman and former Finance Secretary Roberto de Ocampo said the group supports the amendment of the AMLA “to cover casinos, real estate transactions, and art purchases, and giving the Anti-Money Laundering Council the power to immediately freeze suspicious accounts under certain conditions.”
The powerful Catholic Church, meanwhile, says gambling has brought “national shame” to the Philippines, according to Reuters. Archbishop Socrates Villegas told the news agency, “No one pulls off a criminal stunt like this alone. So it is that the dramatis personae in this sad story of loot and theft are many, including cyber-criminals, colluding bank executives, probably even government officials and public servants.”
The Senate investigation will resume April 5.
