MANILA, April 20 – The latest development that came out of Philippine Senate hearing being conducted by its Blue Ribbon Committee squeezed new information out of former Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC)-Jupiter branch manager Maia Santos Deguito on Tuesday.
The lady banker tagged junket casino operator Kim Wong as Christopher Lagrosas, one of the four names with bogus RCBC accounts where the stolen US $81 million from Bangladesh bank had been laundered.
In the recent sixth Senate inquiry on the bank money laundering scam which was streamed online here if you want to watch the full proceedings, Rizal commercial Banking corporation legal chief Maria Celia Estavillo said she received a letter from Deguito, telling her that Deguito got instructions from Mr. Lagrosas on the transfer of funds to William Go.
Asked by Senator Serge Osmena on the whereabout of Lagrosas, Deguito said that “when she speaks of Mr. Lagrosas, she is speaking of Kim Wong.”
A perplexed Osmena, told Wong he had many names. Wong is the owner of the Eastern Hawaii Leisure Comapany, Ltd. whose share in the laundered money amounted to $21.575 million or roughly equivalent to P1 billion.
A cornered Wong admitted he had a meeting with Dequito on Dec. 8 in Solaire to specifically open the peso account for Gao’s loan. Gao Shuhao is a junket casino agent Wong loaned P450 million and will later deposit the payment on the new bank account.
Earlier, reports on the stolen money from Bangladesh Bank detailed that a total of $31 million was deposited to the dollar account of Lagrosas, $25 million to Enrico Vasquez, $19.99 million to Alfred Vergara, and $6 million to Michael Cruz’s account.
As the serial story continue to unfold, the money was consolidated and deposited in a dollar account of Go but denied he opened dollar account with RCBC Jupiter branch claiming his signature was forged.
Deguito pointed out that Michael ‘Con-Con’ Bautista, husband of the PhilRem Services president, and Wong know each other. The banker said it was Wong who requested PhilRem to transfer the money from RCBC to his Eastern Hawaii Company.
Deguito and other key personalities in the stolen Bangladesh bank money have agreed to show phone records that may give lead on how to trace the remaining unrecovered funds.
Senator Paolo Benigno ‘Bam’ Aquino IV asked Senate blue ribbon committee chairman Teofisto Guingona III to compel Deguito, PhilRem Service Corp. president Salud Bautista and Wong to submit to the committee their respective phone transactions regarding the controversy.
- Former RCBC branch manager confirms Christopher Lagrosas is Kim Wong
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