Two Chinese businessmen had allegedly brought the $81 million stolen funds from the Bank of Bangladesh into the Philippine financial system, junket operator Kim Wong, also known as Kam Sin Wong, told a Senate hearing on Tuesday.
Wong identified the two as Shuhua Gao and Ding Zhize during the ongoing investigation of the Senate blue ribbon committee on Tuesday.
“Dalawang foreigners ang nagpasok ng $81 million. Isa sa kanila ay matagal nang labas-pasok sa Pilipinas at kilalang junket agent at high roller. Para makatulong sa mga imbestigador, ilalagay ko sa isang sealed envelope ang kanilang pangalan at kopya ng passport at isa-submit ko sa komite,” he said, reading from the prepared statement.
(Two foreigners brought the $81 million in the country. One of them has been in and out of the Philippines and is a known junket agent and high roller. To help the investigators, I will put their names in a sealed envelope along with a copy of their passport and will submit it to the committee.)
READ: 2 foreigners brought $81M into PH, says Kim Wong
But on Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile’s prodding, Wong identified Gao and Ding, who brought in the funds through Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC).
Wong said Gao has been a junket agent for almost eight years now, while Ding, a businessman from Macau, was introduced to him by Gao.
Wong said Gao borrowed P450 million from him after incurring big losses at a casino in Solaire.
READ: Biz Buzz: Solaire vows to name laundering beneficiaries
At that time, he said, the former branch manager of RCBC-Jupiter in Makati City, Maia Santos-Deguito, had been asking him to open an account in her branch. He then referred Gao to Deguito.
Wong said he and Gao met with Deguito in his office at the Midas Hotel sometime in May 2015.
Wong said Gao wanted to open a dollar account but the branch manager said they needed five persons to open an account for a company.
“Sabi ni Gao ang hirap yata magbukas ng account. E sabi ni Maia ako na ang bahala tapos e nagmamdali din ako, so sabi n’ya po s’ya na ang bahala,” Wong said.
(Gao said that we would probably find it difficult to open an account. Maia told us that she would take care of it. I was in a hurry, and she offered to assist us.)
After two or three days, Wong said Deguito called asking for $2,500 to open the five dollar accounts.
On February 4 this year, Wong said Gao told him that he and Ding would close their casino in Macau and would just invest here in Manila.
On February 5, Wong said he met both Gao and Ding at the Solaire hotel and the two had told him to call Deguito to check on the five bank accounts.
After repeated calls, Wong said Deguito called again at around 1:00 p.m. and informed them about the tranches of funds that started to come into the accounts totaling to $81 million.
Wong said he then asked Deguito if she could bring the money to the hotel.
At around 7:00 p.m. on the same day, Wong said Michael Bautista of Philrem Service Corporation arrived with P80 million supposedly upon Deguito’s request.
“Tapos yung kakulangan na P20 million dadalhin ni Maia, P20 million po. So dumating si Maia po…” he said.
(Maia was supposed to bring the remaining P20 million. She then arrived.)
Aside from the P100 million cash that was delivered to the hotel, Wong said he also collected a total of P300 million and $5 million cash from Bautista’s house.
He said he picked up the first P100 million cash and $3 million cash from Bautista’s house last February 9, another P100 million and $2 million cash on February 10, and another P100 million on February 14.
In his opening statement, Wong accused Deguito of forging the documents of the bank five account holders used to receive and withdraw the stolen funds.
“Si Maia rin ang gumawa ng lahat ng paraan para mailabas ang lahat ng pera sa banko (It was also Maia who pursued all means to release the money from the bank),” Wong said.
Of the total $81 million stolen funds that were deposited and withdrew from the RCBC branch of Deguito, Wong said about $63 million went to Midas and Solaire casinos.
“Ang balanse more or less $17 million sa pagkakaalam ko po ay na kay Philrem (The balance of more or less $17 million, as far as I know, is with Philrem),” he said. IDL
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