RCBC chief bristles at Deguito calling herself a mere ‘pawn’

Lorenzo Tan, the embattled president of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC), Wednesday dismissed as “implausible” claims by his branch manager that the stolen $81 million could not have slipped through the bank without his knowledge.

Maia Santos-Deguito told the Senate blue ribbon committee on Tuesday that she was but a “pawn” in a high-stakes chess game and that her only mistake was trusting Tan and following his order to take care of his “friend.”

“It pains me that Ms Deguito, speaking under oath, continue to stand by her untruthful statements and implicate me in matters of which I had no knowledge or participation,” Tan said in a statement.

The “friend” that Deguito, the RCBC Jupiter branch manager, was referring to was Kim Wong, the junket operator who was among the recipients of the remittance from Bangladesh. Deguito has also tagged Wong as the referrer of the bank accounts used for the money laundering.

Wong pointed out to two foreigners in the gaming industry as the key persons behind the scheme while claiming he did not know where the money had come from. Wong had also stated that Tan was not aware of the transaction while he pinned down Deguito for opening the suspicious bank accounts.

Tan, who is on indefinite leave, said he had no personal dealings with Deguito before, during and after her employment at RCBC as branch manager, adding that she had apparently concocted the story to pin the blame on higher bank officials, particularly him.

Deguito’s claim that she was just following instructions that clearly violated the law and banking policy was “implausible,” Tan said, noting that “her 15-year experience in the banking industry belies her claims.”

He said that Deguito had already previously testified under oath that he had never instructed her to open any account at RCBC and that she merely “assumed” that he had known about the transaction.”

“She should not be allowed to drop names of other persons in the guise of innocence when, as a banker for 15 years, she obviously has knowledge of the questionable nature of these transactions, and should not have proceeded in the first place,” Tan said.

“I only knew Deguito as one of 470-plus branch managers at the bank,” he said. “I remember no occasion where I met Deguito with Kim Wong in attendance, or any other event that he mentioned anything to Deguito about him.”

Negligent

Based on bank protocols and standard operating procedures, Tan said Deguito’s actions in facilitating this money-laundering scheme were, “to say the least, negligent and in blatant violations of bank policy.”

“Under oath, she admitted, among others, that she accommodated written and verbal requests for the transfers of huge sums of money from ‘valued clients’ or ‘friends’ who are not even the owners of the accounts subject of the transfers,” Tan said.

“She also admitted to violating bank policy by not conducting a thorough verification of the identities of these account holders because, she says, she trusted Mr. (Kim) Wong’s integrity as the referrer of these clients,” he said.

Said Tan: “To save herself from inevitable liability, she now turns to blame the higher officials of the bank, and ultimately me, because she had an impression that I ‘could not have been unaware’ of said transactions.”

“These conflicting statements—first, that I gave her explicit instructions, and second, that she only assumed I gave the instructions given my alleged connection to Mr. Wong—reveal that Ms Deguito is only out to malign my reputation and take the blame off her, to cover up her fraudulent actions or gross negligence,” Tan said.

“I have no knowledge, nor did I participate, in the opening of the bank accounts subject of the hearing, as she so claims. I did not give any instructions to her to, as she says, ‘take care of my friends,’ and proceed with the transactions,“ Tan said.

Shake-up

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 RCBC Jupiter branch.  The money—which turned out to have been stolen by hackers—found its way to local casinos.

RCBC head of legal and regulatory affairs Maria Cecilia “Macel” Fernandez-Estavillo Wednesday said in an interview that the bank was bound to slap penalties in varying degrees—ranging from termination, suspension and warnings—to bank employees who were either involved or amiss in their duties.

As of now, RCBC has fired Deguito and her deputy Angela Torres and likewise charged them in court for alleged falsification of bank accounts. Estavillo said Deguito’s immediate superior, an officer with the rank of first vice president for retail banking, had been terminated. The superior was not in collusion with Deguito but had oversight lapses and this was the second offense committed by that officer, Estavillo said.

One executive vice president had been issued a written warning for an apparent error in judgment but was not in collusion with Deguito, she added. She said more charges may be filed in court against other people aside from Deguito and Torres.

Tan is also under investigation by a special committee composed of representatives from four major bank shareholders: Helen Yuchengco-Dee representing the Yuchengco family, Francis Peng representing Taiwanese insurance giant Cathay Life, Richard Westlake of International Finance Corp. and Wilfrido Sanchez, a bank director.

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