Kim Wong seeks dismissal of money launder raps
Businessman Kam Sin Wong, alias Kim Wong, has formally sought the dismissal of money laundering charges filed against him at the Department of Justice (DOJ) in connection with the $80.9 million stolen by hackers from the Bangladesh Bank and laundered in the country.
Wong, a casino junket operator, submitted to the DOJ his counter-affidavit in a preliminary investigation hearing last Tuesday, denying the allegations in the complaint filed by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).
Wong claimed he did not violate Section 4 of the AntiMoney Laundering Act, adding he has already returned to the government P38.28 million and $4.63 million he got from the laundered money.
Wong stood by his state- ments in the Senate inquiry that it was former Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) branch manager Maia Santos-Deguito who facilitated the transactions.
The other casino junket operator named respondent in the AMLC complaint, Weikang Xu, has not appeared before the DOJ for the preliminary investigation being conducted by Assistant State Prosecutor Gilmarie Fe Pacamarra.
Deguito formally denied the charges and filed with the prosecutor her counter-affidavit last May 3. She asked the DOJ to dismiss the charges for lack of probable cause.
She denied the allegation that she facilitated the laundering of the stolen money, insisting that it was former RCBC president Lorenzo Tan who ordered her to open the four fictitious accounts where the $80,884,641.63 stolen by hackers from the Bangladesh Bank went.
The former manager of the bank’s branch in Jupiter Street in Makati City stressed all the transactions in her branch had the approval of Tan, claiming that she is only being used as scapegoat by bank officials to avoid criminal liability.
Pacamarra has ordered the AMLC to submit a reply to Deguito’s answers by Tuesday next week.
The DOJ is also set to investigate the third batch of money laundering charges filed by AMLC against officers of remittance firm Philrem Service Corp., particularly its president Salud Bautista, chairman and treasurer Michael Bautista and anti-money laundering compliance officer Anthony Pelejo.