Philrem to return P10M to Bangladesh

IN THE HOT SEAT Salud Bautista, president of Philrem remittance company, responds to questions during the Senate hearing on Thursday. GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

The foreign exchange remittance company that converted into pesos the $81 million stolen from the Bangladesh central bank Thursday apologized to the ambassador of the impoverished South Asian nation and offered to return all proceeds it made from the transaction.

Speaking before the Senate blue ribbon committee, Philrem Services Inc. president Salud Bautista said her firm would issue a check in the name of the government of Bangladesh representing her company’s earnings from the deal.

“We are sorry,” Bautista said, adding Philrem did not know the funds were stolen from Bangladesh.

She said the firm would immediately write a check for P10,474,654 and turn it over to Bangladeshi representatives.

Earlier during the Senate hearing, Maia Deguito, branch manager of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) which is at the center of the money-laundering scandal, said Kim Wong had referred to her the supposed holders of the four fictitious accounts, who received part of the money stolen from Bangladesh Bank.

Deguito also linked RCBC president/CEO Lorenzo Tan to Wong.

Wong is among those being investigated by the Senate in the laundering of $81 million but he skipped the hearing because his lawyer said he had been out of the country since March 4 for medical treatment.

‘Referred accounts’

After she testified in a closed-door session, Deguito answered some of the questions from senators during the resumption of the public hearing.

Asked by Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile how the four bank accounts were created at the RCBC branch on Jupiter Street in Makati City, Dequito said the four were “referred accounts.”

She described Wong as a friend of Tan.

Deguito said she has known Wong for six years now, having met him when she was then working with Export Bank in 2009 “through client friends.”

Deguito’s backer

“He (Wong) wanted to help me in the marketing budget for the bank,” she said in reply to the question why Wong referred the account holders to him.

Deguito said she met Wong through “common client friends” and identified Jason Go as one of them.

Tan said Wong was buying cars from Go, the car dealer who earlier was identified at the hearing as the one who recommended Deguito to RCBC.

RCBC lawyer Macel Fernandez-Estavillo said Go was a “valued client of the bank.”

“I met Wong through Jason Go. Jason Go has been helping me in getting clients for whatever bank I am assigned,” Deguito said.

Go was Deguito’s client in Export Bank.

Deguito said Wong became a client of hers when she was working for East West Bank.

Asked about his association with Wong after Deguito claimed that the RCBC president was a friend of Wong, Tan said Deguito “seems to know him better.”

“I have no business (with him),” Tan said, noting that he met Wong in 2002 because he was a restaurant owner. But Tan said he had not seen Wong in 12 or 14 years.

Tan repeated he also knew Go.

Thursday Club

Asked whether he was a member of the so-called Thursday Club that included Go and Wong, Tan said he was not part of the group.

On questioning by the blue ribbon committee chair, Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, Deguito said she attended the birthday party of Go in the last quarter of 2014 and in attendance were Tan and Wong, among others.

“Wong and Tan walked together and Mr. Tan told me to take care of that guy (Wong),” Deguito said.

Deguito also said Tan invited her to join RCBC when she resigned from East West Bank in 2013.

Tan said he did not remember attending Go’s birthday party as Deguito had said.

“I never invited her to join (RCBC) …. She is portraying herself as someone special and that I brought her in. That did not happen,” Tan said of Deguito, this time on her claim he invited her to join the bank.

Wong to return to PH

Wong will return to the Philippines to appear before the Senate blue ribbon committee, according to his lawyer.

“In the letter, he expressed willingness to appear before the committee on March 20 onwards,” Wong’s lawyer Macel Fernandez told the committee.

Fernandez said his client, a Filipino citizen, would address the allegations against him when he appears before the committee.

Wong left the country on March 4  to undergo a medical treatment in Singapore, his lawyer said.

Guingona set the next hearing on March 29 at 1:30 p.m.

Asked if Wong would be available at such time, Fernandez said: “He will be available but it depends on the outcome of the medical treatment.”