An amount of US$17 million of the $81 million fund stolen from Bangladesh Bank’s overseas account may have still remained with Filipino remittance firm Philrem, according to Philippines media reports.
Such conclusion is being made based on claims by casino junket operator Kim Wong to the Senate investigation.
Senate assistant minority floor leader Vicente Sotto III was quoted by The Manila Times as saying that the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) should start going after the money remittance agent.
The Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation is set to file a cyber-theft case against Philrem Service Corporation for the still unaccounted $14.7 million out of the $81 million, said online news portal of TV5 InterAksyon.com.
Philrem owners - Michael and Salud Bautista - have vigorously denied a similar claim made earlier by casino junket operator Kim Wong to the Senate investigation that as per his calculations about $17 million still remains with Philrem.
In the RCBC claim, the unaccounted $14.7 million represents the 650 million peso transferred to a fake bank account made in the name of trader William Go, who himself had filed falsification cases against RCBC branch manager Deguito and her staff.
According to The Manila Times, Sotto said the Senate has already done its part in extracting information from resource persons on the $81-million cyber heist and it is up to the concerned government agency to go after those who may have had direct involvement in the scandal.
PhilRem was said to have transferred the stolen money from Rizal Banking Commercial Corp. (RCBC) to different accounts and individuals.
Of the $81 million that was stolen and entered RCBC Jupiter Branch in Makati City (Metro Manila), about $63 million went to Solaire and Midas casinos, while the remaining $17 million, Wong said, is still with PhilRem, said the report.
Wong, president of Eastern Hawaii Leisure Ltd. Co. that operates a hotel-casino at the Cagayan Special Economic Zone in northern Caayan province, said PhilRem transferred a total of 1 billion peso to his company’s account with the Philippine National Bank.
Of the amount, 550 million peso was converted to dead chips for junket players and 450 million peso was for payment of debt of Chinese trader Shuhua Gao.
Gao, according to Wong, was among the brains in the entry of the stolen money.
The senator, however, questioned a move of the AMLC not to freeze the accounts of PhilRem when those of the others who are involved in the scandal have been ordered frozen.
The failure of the AMLC to freeze the accounts of PhilRem, according to Sotto, is a concern because there were reports saying that the company already sent the $17 million abroad.