LORENZO Tan – the embattled president of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. which is at the centerstage of an $81-million money laundering probe – refuted on Wednesday renewed claims by the manager of the bank’s Jupiter branch in Makati that this transaction could not have happened without his knowledge.
Tan, who is currently on indefinite leave, maintained his innocence as he dismissed as “implausible” the claim made by Maia Santos Deguito before the Senate blue ribbon committee on Tuesday that she was but a “pawn” in a high-stakes game and that her only mistake was trusting Tan to take care of his friends.
“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 on Wednesday.
Tan 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 to mask her own infractions.
Tan said Deguito’s claim that she was just following instructions that clearly violated the law and banking policy were “implausible,” noting that “her 15-year experience in the banking industry belies her claims.”
“She could not have committed said infractions, given her extensive professional history as a banker,” he said.
Tan also pointed out that Deguito “had already testified under oath in a previous Senate hearing that I have never instructed her to open any account at the RCBC-Jupiter branch, and that she merely assumed that I knew of 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.”
Based on bank protocols and standard operating procedures, Tan said Deguito 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.”
Kim Wong, the junket operator who was among the recipients of the remittance, had been identified as the one who referred the people behind the bank accounts used for the money laundering. He in turn pointed to two foreigners as the key people behind the scheme while claiming he himself did not know where the money had come from. Wong had also stated that Tan was not aware of the transaction while pinning down Deguito on the opening of the bank accounts.
“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.
Deguito’s finger-pointing, Tan said, was a way to mask the fact she had wantonly violated bank protocols and standard operating procedures to facilitate the money-laundering scheme.