RCBC president sues Deguito for P32-M
Former RCBC Jupiter branch manager Maia Santos-Deguito leaving at the end Senate Blue Ribbon Committee inquiry into the laundering of $81 million stolen from Bangladesh Bank which was deposited into bank accounts in RCBC’s Jupiter branch in Makati City. INQUIRER PHOTO/LYN RILLON
RCBC President Lorenzo V. Tan on Monday filed before the Makati City Regional Trial Court a P32-million civil suit and a criminal case against former RCBC-Jupiter Branch Manager Maia S. Deguito.
Tan sued Deguito for her “scurrilous remarks” involving him in the $81-million funds stolen by hackers from the Bangladesh Bank and laundered in the Philippines.
Deguito is facing a case for violation of the Revised Penal Code for Libel and False Testimony.
“All of these [imputations] were products of mere assumptions made by respondent [Deguito] that I oversaw and thus authorized the questioned transactions. Her imagination had simply gone beyond what was real or actual, and is farthest from the truth,” Tan alleged in his complaint.
“The imputation of the foregoing acts diminished if not destroyed my reputation as a banker,” he continued. “My profession is based on utmost trust and confidence between myself and the Bank’s clients, and I have striven hard to keep my reputation from being sullied as it is my source of livelihood and productivity as a professional. Without a good reputation, I cannot be a credible banker, let alone be called one.”
Cited in his complaint were Deguito’s media interviews and testimony before the Senate.
Tan said Deguito, in her March 7 reply to RCBC’s Show Cause Memorandum, indicated malice on her part and was “a clear ploy to create a defense for herself against the various criminal accusations made against her by implicating me as complicit in her caper.”
Deguito, according to Tan, is also guilty of false testimony, for having stated before the Senate that Tan gave her instructions to “take care of his [Tan’s] friends.”
In a statement read before the Senate on April 5, she said that she “relied on the fact that Mr. Tan could not have been unaware of a transaction that has been labeled the biggest bank heist in the history of the world.”
Aside from criminal charges, Tan also filed a civil complaint for damages against Deguito for abuse of rights and defamatory imputations, and claimed for damages of P32 million for moral, temperate, exemplary damages and attorney’s fees.
In a statement, Tan said that he filed these cases to protect his honor and integrity as a person and as a professional banker. “I have no other asset but my reputation, a gift that is of utmost value in an industry dealing with trust and people’s monies,” he said. “Even if her accusations against me are found untrue, my reputation which I had carefully built and guarded for almost thirty-five (35) years has already been irretrievably tainted.”
“In fact, to clear my name, I have taken a voluntary leave just to avoid any perception of undue influence on my part in the on-going internal investigation by RCBC on the matter,” he added. “Indeed, the accusations by Deguito against me had demeaned me.”
According to Tan, Deguito and her counsel, with deliberate intent, conjured together to make public imputations of money laundering offenses and dishonorable conduct against him, despite the blatant admission of Deguito that she directly handled the money laundering transactions.
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