AMLC: Money laundering raps filed against RCBC officials
SIX current and former officials of the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) have been filed with money laundering charges before the Department of Justice (DOJ).
According to the complaint-affidavit received by the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Nov. 18, 2016, the AntiMoney Laundering Council (AMLC) included in the charges former Retail Banking Group head Raul Victor B. Tan, who resigned last April 20; National Sales Director of the Retail Banking Group Ismael R. Reyes; and Brigitte R. Capiña, Retail Banking Group regional sales director.
Also included are Nestor O. Pineda, district sales director; Romualdo S. Agarrado, customer service head, Jupiter Business Center; and Angela Ruth S. Torres, senior customer relations officer of the Jupiter Business Center.
Torres was terminated from her job after RCBC investigation showed that she, along with then RCBC Jupiter branch manager Maia Deguito, violated bank policies and procedures and falsified commercial documents that paved the way for the laun- dering of $81 million that is part of the money stolen from the Bangladesh Central Bank’s dollar account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York last February.
The complaint said AMLC investigations showed that the six RCBC officers “facilitated the suspicious transactions” that enabled the remittance of a total of $81 million to four US dollar accounts owned by Michael F. Cruz, Jessie Christopher M. Lagrosas, Alfred S. Vergara, and Enrico T. Vasquez on Feb. 4, 2016.
It said the respondents failed to “conduct the requisite investigations and inquiries into the accounts, their beneficiaries, and the transactions, attributable to their knowledge about the unlawful origins of the funds or their deliberate refusal to know the unlawful origins of the funds.”
It said the four accounts, along with that owned by one Ralph Picache, were opened on May 15, 2015 at the RCBC Jupiter Business Center with initial deposit of $500 each.
These accounts did not have any other transactions until February this year.
Peso deposit accounts were also opened by the same five bank account owners on Dec. 8, 2015, it said.
Last Feb. 4, payment orders were sent to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York supposedly by the Bangladesh Bank for the transfer of $81 million to the accounts of Lagrosas, $30 million; Cruz, $6 million; Vergara, $20 million; and Vasquez, $25 million.
The complaint said that from 4:54 a.m. to 5:12 a.m. of the next day, RCBC’s Settlements Department received messages through the Society of Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (Swift) payment system from RCBC’s three correspondent foreign banks, namely Bank of New York Mellon, Wells Fargo and Citi, regarding the payment to the four beneficiaries in the Philippines.
Swift is a 24-hour global communication network that facilitates secure international exchange of payments transactions among banks, central banks, multinational corporations and major securities firms.
It said Agarrado and Torres “failed to observe the Know-Your-Customer rule required under Amla while Tan, Reyes, Capiña, and Pineda failed to conduct Enhanced Due Diligence in dealing with the accounts.