Senate probe sought into banks’ failure to flag Pogo-linked deals

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian | INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines —  A Senate inquiry has been sought into the banks’ alleged failure to flag suspicious Philippine offshore gaming operator (Pogo)-related transactions linked to criminal activities in the country.

The proposed investigation is being proposed by Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian through Senate  Resolution No. 1193 filed last week.

Banks are required under the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2001 to report to the Anti-Money

READ: Gatchalian: 36 Alice Guo accounts financed illegal Pogo

Laundering Council all covered transactions and suspicious transactions within five working days from the occurrence thereof, the resolution said.

Recent investigations on POGO-related activities, however, revealed the existence of bank transactions involving companies owned by Go Hua Ping, also known as Alice Guo, amounting to hundreds of millions of pesos, which enabled the construction and establishment of a POGO hub in Bamban, Gatchalian pointed out in the resolution.

“Such [an] amount is far beyond what the financial statements indicated in the financial capacity of these companies,” he said.

READ: Dead end in Guo money laundering case

Guo, the dismissed mayor of Bamban town in Tarlac, has been the subject of an investigation by the Senate committee on women over her alleged ties to the Pogo hub raided and closed down by authorities in March.

During last week’s hearing in the Senate,  Gatchalian disclosed that from 2018 to 2024, nearly  P5 billion in cash and checks were deposited in the personal bank accounts of  Guo and two of her companies.

To prove this,  the senator presented records and financial documents obtained by his office supposedly showing that Guo was an “active participant” in the establishment of the Pogo hub.

But in the resolution, Gatchalian noted a “remarkable surge of cash flows, check disbursements, and several transactions involving said Guo accounts, which was allegedly highest in 2020.

He considered this “highly unusual and suspicious,”  considering that at that time, the COVID-19 pandemic paralyzed businesses and economies worldwide.

“These transactions involving significant amounts of money were coursed through the banking system and, unfortunately, were not flagged by the concerned banks and financial institutions,” Gatchalian then said.

“Such failure of these banks to report these dubious transactions raises the matter of the effectiveness of their internal controls and procedures for identifying and reporting suspicious transactions,” he added.