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Bangladesh gov't asks PHL Senate for another set of hearings on USD 81-M bank heist
By Joann Santiago

MANILA, Aug. 5 (PNA) - The Bangladesh government is requesting the Philippine Senate for another set of hearings on the bank heist last February to know more about the involvement of other entities and personalities on the said transnational cyber crime.

In a briefing Friday, Bangladesh Ambassador to the Philippines Maj. Gen. John Gomes said he was confident on the eventual resolution of the case and the eventual recovery of the USD 81 million illegally withdrawn and sent to the Philippines from Bangladesh Bank’s account with the Federal Reserve of New York.

He said he had a meeting with President Rodrigo R. Duterte in Davao City last June and the Chief Executive gave his commitment to help Bangladesh recover the stolen money

”We are pinning our hopes on the new administration for the recovery of our money,” he said.

With this commitment, Gomes said, has also discussed the issue with Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III to request for the re-opening of the Blue Ribbon Committee hearing to be able to identify new areas to focus on.

He has seen a copy of the committee report and noted that “many things have come up in that committee report through which we now feel we can now continue with another senate hearing.”

“Through (the) Senate the whole Philippines (and) Bangladesh came to know what is happening otherwise we have to just wait for the courts. I feel the Senate was very useful tool for us to find out about the USD 81 million and I feel another hearing would complete it,” he said.

Gomes said Pimentel did not give a timeline when the next hearing would be but the Bangladesh Embassy has been asked to submit a written report on what issues they want to focus on.

He feels that the first Senate hearing on the issue focused more on the needed policy changes on Philippines’ bank secrecy law and on the culpability of former RCBC Jupiter-Makati branch manager Maia Deguito.

Thus, he wants the future Senate hearing on this issue to focus more on the involvement of the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC), remittance company Philrem Services Corp., and businessman William Go, whose alleged account in RCBC Jupiter-Makati branch received the consolidated funds that was directly sent from the Federal Reserve of New York to four other accounts with the said RCBC branch.

Another delegation from Bangladesh will arrive in the Philippines in September this year to attend to the legal procedure on the forfeiture case for the USD 15 million returned by casino junket operator Kim Wong to the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).

Gomes is optimistic that the Bangladesh government would be able to get the USD 15 million by September and eventually the whole USD 81 million. (PNA)

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