A mystery
closely connected to whoever was, the key to solving the mystery lies here. Very little progress has been made in uncovering that key and the initial assurances by regulatory and would “get to the bottom of this” were replaced long before now by complete indifference to the matter.
RCBC cleared itself and its top management of any wrongdoing, but forced out its CEO Nestor Tan and Treasurer Raul Tan (no relation) for the sake of appearances. The bank was by the BSP in August 2016 for various violations of banking regulations, and did not contest it. Apart from review to the way it handles accounts and large transactions – so they say – and meeting with its US-based correspondent banks Wells Fargo, Bank of New York, and Citibank to implement some “new procedures” in handling fund transfers, RCBC has given every indication that it considers the matter closed, or would very much like to.
Former RCBC branch manager - cials from Philrem, the remittance and the physical transfer of most of the funds, were charged with anti-money laundering crimes by the Department of Justice (DoJ), but those cases have further progress has been made on charges forwarded to the DoJ by the Anti- Money Laundering Council of RCBC for complicity in the crime.
Outside of the bank and Philrem, at least eight individuals were tagged as being involved in the plot, but only one of them – casino junket wrangler and dubious “businessman” Kam Sin - tioned or even positively identified; Wong arranged the return of about $15 million of the stolen funds, and so far has seemed to satisfy curious authorities with his tale of being coincidentally connected to any of this, and simply clueless about what was really going on.
It is discouraging that the situation is not much clearer now than it was when than two years ago, and downright alarming that the starkly obvious signs that the conspiracy is much broader than anyone realizes (or wants to admit) have not spurred authorities to take more aggressive action in any of the places involved, especially here.
As I wrote then, while the news stories were still interesting enough to be printed above the fold (“The RCBC scandal is much bigger than anyone realizes,” March 22, 2016), the involvement of RCBC and the Philippines as conduits for the stolen funds was far from an accidental or opportunistic choice, but critical linchpins in a complex plan that took months or even years to engineer and carry out. Con absolutely nothing that has happened that it will not happen again.