Ex-bank manager convicted over $81-M Bangladesh bank heist

Maia Deguito, a former branch manager of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC), has been found guilty of money laundering in connection with the cyber heist of $81 million from Bangladesh’s central bank in 2016. 

At the promulgation of judgment on Thursday, the Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 149 convicted Deguito of eight counts of violation of the Anti-Money Laundering Act and acquitted her of one due to its similarity with one of the eight other cases.

She was sentenced to four to seven years imprisonment for each count and ordered to pay more than $109 million in fine.

Government charges filed in 2017 alleged that Deguito facilitated the transfer of laundered money from the Bangladesh Bank to multiple accounts under four fictitious names at the RCBC branch on Jupiter Street, Makati City in February 2016.

From the multiple accounts, the money was allegedly consolidated into a single US dollar account in the name of Filipino-Chinese businessman William Go, then withdrawn, converted into peso, and transferred to at least three casinos.

Deguito’s co-accused, account holders Michael Francisco Cruz, Jessie Christopher Lagrosas, Alfred Santos Vergara, and Enrico Teodoro Vasquez, were later found to be fictitious.

In his 26-page decision, Judge Cesar Untalan ruled that Deguito's defense that she had nothing to do with the transactions was a "complete and comprehensive lie." 

Because of Deguito's "command responsibility" over the bank branch at the time, the judge wrote that the former manager must be held liable for violation of the anti-money laundering law.

The court concluded, citing Deguito's own testimony, that she "had full and prior knowledge of the illegal source of these funds."

Since Deguito claimed she was only instructed by higher bank officers, the judge said she should have inquired about the source of the huge amount of remittances.

"Accused did nothing to protect herself; but rather, she proceeded in implementing these covered transactions with 'gusto,' hence she must be made liable for violation of the AMLA Law!" the decision stated.

Citing a witness' testimony, Untalan also ruled that Deguito "had not only facilitated these subject illegal bank transactions," but also "coordinated and corroborated to the execution of these illegal bank transactions for an easy and prompt execution for credit and transfer to the account of Mr. William Go, disregarding and putting aside any obstacles and distraction including that stop payment instruction."

The judge added that the testimony of witness Rafael Echaluse, the Anti-Money Laundering Council Secretariat Officer who investigated the cases, was "good enough" to convict Deguito.

It was Echaluse who alleged that, among others, certain accounts in the Jupiter branch were opened and used to receive and transfer "unauthorized remittances" of around $81 million from the Bangladesh Bank's account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Echaluse said Deguito created and opened the accounts using fictitious identification and allowed the transaction of the "illegal proceeds."

He also testified that the money was the proceeds of an act of hacking or cracking, but the judge did not discuss this in the decision.

Demetrio Custodio, Deguito's lawyer, said they will file a motion for reconsideration assailing the judge's decision. He also said that his client will not be imprisoned nor made to pay the fine until the decision becomes final.

He added that Deguito should not be made to pay the massive fine, claiming that the judge found that the prosecution failed to establish that the funds went to her account.

Deguito herself declined to comment. —KBK, GMA News