Kim Wong tagged as mastermind in $81-M laundering case

Businessman Kim Wong, who was once linked to illegal drug operations in the early 2000s, appears to be the mastermind of the $81-million money laundering scheme, Senator Sergio Osmeña III said on Friday.

According to Ivan Mayrina's report on "24 Oras," Osmeña made the conclusion after hearing the testimony of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) bank manager Maia Deguito in an executive session with senators on Thursday.

The alleged laundering of funds that were hacked and stolen from Bangladesh's bank account in New York is now the subject of an inquiry by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee.

The funds were allegedly laundered in Philippine banks and casinos.

"I wouldn't say least guilty but [Deguito's] not the most guilty. May orchestrator dito, may mastermind. And right now its looking like its Kim Wong," Osmeña said.

A source who was also at the executive session said it was Wong who continuously followed up with Deguito on February 5 as regards the transfer of the funds that hackers stole from Bangladesh's New York bank account.

Wong has been unable to attend the hearings as he is currently undergoing medical treatment in Singapore. The committee has already conducted two hearings on the multi-million-dollar money laundering case.

Osmeña and Senator Teofisto Guingona III believe Deguito could not have facilitated alone the fund transfers involving the stolen funds.

"According to her story, but we still have to vet it with other testimonies.... It seems she was just used and that there is really a prime mover in all this. He is here in the Philippines," said Guingona, the chairman of the blue ribbon panel.

RCBC execs involved

Guingona said Deguito during the executive session identified two RCBC executives who may have had a hand in the transactions. He did not disclose their names.

"She is highly credible. I would tend to believe 80-90 percent of what she said, the other 10 percent, we still have to check out," Osmeña said.

Deguito during the open hearing said Wong had referred all the accounts—whose holders were found to be fictitious—to hold the $81 million before the funds were consolidated into the account of businessman William Go, and laundered in casinos.

She said Wong was a valued client of the bank being a close friend of RCBC president and CEO Lorenzo Tan.

Tan admitted meeting Wong in 2002 but added that he has not met him more than ten years. He said he knew Wong as a restaurant-owner.

Deguito claimed she met Wong through car dealer Jason Go when she was still with East West Bank.

Car dealer

During the hearing on Thursday, an RCBC bank executive told the committee that Go pushed for Deguito's appointment as manager of the Jupiter Street branch, where the questioned accounts were deposited.

Tan admitted knowing Go as a car dealer known to many CEOs in the Makati area but indicated that an outsider didn't have influence on the appointment of the bank's branch managers.

GMA News got a photo of Wong and Jason Go together from a reliable source.

Meanwhile, Osmeña said he was convinced that William Go was not the owner of the account that contained laundered funds.

The lawmaker said "it looks like" the account belongs to Allan Peñalosa, East West Bank branch head in Burgos Circle, Taguig.

"Peñalosa has his own private business where he would discount the checks that are given to Centurytex (Trading), which is the company of Mr. Go," Osmeña said.  —Virgil Lopez/NB, GMA News