415 (not 46) Napoles bank accounts ordered frozen, De Lima clarifies

Janet Lim-Napoles. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima on Saturday clarified that ordered frozen were 415, not 46, bank accounts of fugitive Janet Lim-Napoles and other persons and nongovernment organizations involved in the alleged P10-billion pork barrel scam.

Napoles is allegedly the mastermind behind the P10-billion pork barrel scam that the DOJ and the National Bureau of Investigation are investigating.

The freeze order covered 344 bank accounts, 66 insurance policies and five possibly credit card accounts, De Lima said.

“Out of the 415 accounts, 107 are in the name of Napoles herself, aka Jannet Napoles Lim or Jenny Lim. The accounts are in 17 banks/banking institutions and six insurance companies,” De Lima said.

Among the bank accounts ordered frozen were those of JLN Group of Companies, dominated by Napoles and her family and friends, and 20 nongovernment organizations Napoles allegedly used to siphon off P10 billion in lawmakers’ pork barrel allocations into her bank accounts over the last 10 years.

The appeals court ordered the freeze to grant a petition brought by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) through the Office of the Solicitor General, an agency under the justice department.

The AMLC recommended a freeze following requests from the National Bureau of Investigation and the Office of the Ombudsman, which are separately investigating the pork barrel scam.

Ordered arrested

A Makati court has ordered the arrest without bail of Napoles and her brother Reynald Lim for serious illegal detention involving Benhur Luy, the principal witness in the pork barrel scam.

Napoles and Lim disappeared after learning that they would be arrested.

They are now the subjects of a nationwide manhunt launched on Thursday by the NBI and the Philippine National Police.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has also canceled the passports of Napoles and Lim to prevent them from leaving the country.

DFA spokesman Raul Hernandez said the DFA readily granted the DOJ’s request and canceled the passports of Napoles and Lim.

He said the DFA also informed the Bureau of Immigration and Philippine foreign service posts and consular offices around the world about the cancellations.