The Philippines Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto has expressed his wish for his country to return to Bangladesh the bulk of the $81 million that hackers stole from its central bank by June 30, before a new administration takes over.  “That should be our national deadline. Before President Aquino returns to private life, we must see to it that all the recoverable money from that heist has been returned to its rightful owner,” Recto said in a statement to media.
The country’s president, Aquino, is stepping down on June 30. However, Before the Philippines government can turn over the recovered funds to Bangladesh, the AMLC would have to file a civil forfeiture case and secure a court order. Bangladesh would also have claim ownership of the money in court so that and order can be given to return the funds. Recto said it would be okay if all of the recovered funds could not be returned to Bangladesh by June 30, so long as a substantial amount would have been given back to the South Asian country by then. Meanwhile, the treasurer of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) has stepped down on the heels of a government probe on the $81-million money laundering case that slipped through the bank’s Jupiter branch. Raul Victor Tan, treasurer and executive vice president, resigned effective April 20, RCBC said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday. In his place, the RCBC board has appointed Carlos Cesar Mercado, who has the rank of senior vice president, as acting treasurer. Sources said Tan – who has appeared in hearings of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee – had received from RCBC head office a written warning for an apparent error in judgment in relation to the Bangladesh remittance. But an internal bank probe had shown that he was not in collusion with RCBC branch manager Maia Santos-Deguito, the alleged gatekeeper of the dirty money from Bangladesh.
On Feb. 5, some $81 million was wired from the bank account of the central bank of Bangladesh with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to four bank accounts at the RCBC Jupiter branch. The money – which turned out to have been stolen by hackers – found its way to local casinos. Earlier on Wednesday, dismissed head of RCBC’s Jupiter branch, Maria Santos-Deguito, and her counsel presented documents to the Senate committee, claiming that RCBC officials allowed several transactions involving the $81 million stolen funds to be credited and withdrawn despite queries from Deguito for clarification and guidance from her superiors. More importantly, the bank—through the treasury department in its head office—handled the so-called “dirty money” a second time two days after it was told by the Bangladesh Bank that the funds were of dubious provenance, they claimed. However, the RCBC immediately denied the accusation that the bank’s higher-ups had cleared the transactions.