RCBC brass innocent of laundering charges, bank says

Four of the five Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. officials who were recently charged in court in relation to the $81-million money laundering scandal in 2016 did not deserve such an indictment.

This was according to RCBC, citing its own investigation which concluded that four of these people had no knowledge of the alleged money laundering activities.

“While we expect the case to be resolved favorably, the bank cannot give further comments on the case without risking subjudice,” RCBC said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Thursday.

The following officials were charged by the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday at the Makati City Regional Trial Court: former RCBC treasurer Raul Victor Tan (who resigned in April 2016); national sales director Ismael Reyes; regional sales director Brigitte Capita; customer services head Romualdo Agarrado; and former senior customer relationship officer Angela Ruth Torres.

The DOJ found these five people remiss in their duties that, in turn, allowed the $81 million stolen by cyberhackers from the Bangladesh Bank to enter the local financial system through RCBC’s Jupiter Street branch in Makati City and disappear into local casinos.

These five were found instrumental in the lifting of the temporary hold on the four beneficiary accounts of the remittance of funds from the Bangladesh Bank, and the withdrawal of such funds, among other acts.

Before this 2016 scandal, casinos were not covered by the stringent reporting obligations under the Anti-Money Laundering Act.

RCBC’s disclosure did not say which of the four officials had no knowledge of the alleged money laundering. Back in 2016, the bank had tagged RCBC Jupiter as a rogue branch and the branch manager, Maia Deguito, had already been convicted of eight counts of money laundering by the Makati RTC in January.

But while RCBC did not say which one had knowledge of the money laundering transaction, back in 2016, it had fired Angela Ruth Torres along with Deguito, citing violations of bank policies and procedures as well as falsification of commercial documents.

RCBC earlier claimed that Deguito and Torres had breached the rules and facilitated the alleged laundering of funds stolen from Bangladeshi central bank.