Manila, Philippines (BBN)-It has been a frustrating effort for Bangladesh Ambassador John Gomes to reclaim and send home at least part of the $81 million stolen from his government which is now in the possession of the Philippine central bank.
He aired his frustration at yesterday’s resumption of the hearing on the issue by the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, reports The Phil Star.com.
Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) executive director Julia Bacay-Abad noted that the $4.63 million and P38.2 million turned over by Chinese-Filipino casino junket operator Kim Wong are being kept by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas in its vaults for “safekeeping” only.
Abad said that there was no expressed consent from the camp of Wong to turn over the funds to the government of Bangladesh and so the AMLC is in a bind as to how to deal with the matter.
“This is very new to us today because earlier we have a document where they told us to accept the money and that is why they called us to the AMLC office and we received the money,” Gomes told reporters after the hearing.
He recalled being present with the embassy’s second secretary when the $4.63 million was turned over by Wong.
“We signed the receipt of $4.63 million a few days ago by the AMLC and my embassy second secretary he counted the money and then I signed it,” he said.
“I signed the paper of the receipt and then yesterday we had another P38.280 million, so that was also counted by my embassy representative and fortunately at that time we also had two of our Bangladesh Bank officials present during that transaction. It was handed over to us and we received it and then it’s in the vault,” he added.
Gomes said the government of Bangladesh was moving ahead with the recovery of the other amounts, including the P450 million promised by Wong within the next 15 to 30 days.
He said that the embassy had made an arrangement with the Standard Chartered Bank to wire the funds to Bangladesh when this development came up.
Blue Ribbon chairman Sen.
Teofisto Guingona III has arranged a meeting today with the AMLC and representatives of the Bangladesh embassy to discuss the matter.
Abad said the process of turning over the funds to Bangladesh should include the issuance of a written consent by Wong.
Without this written consent, Abad said the government may have to resort to filing a civil forfeiture case and if no one emerges to claim the funds, these could then be turned over to the Bangladesh government.
“So we’re moving ahead and now this has come up so we will discuss tomorrow and I’m sure that this matter will be resolved tomorrow,” Gomes said.
PLEADINGS FOR FORFEITURE
Abad said they are preparing the pleadings for the petition for civil forfeiture that would be filed before a lower court in Manila next week.
“Regardless of where the money went, that should be recovered,” she added.
She said Wong’s lawyers Inocencio Ferrer Jr. and Victor Fernandez agreed to turn over the amount to the ALMC for safekeeping.
“The AMLC should not give the funds to the claimant without due process,” Ferrer said during the hearing.
Abad replied that the acknowledgement receipts for the $4.63 million and the P38.28 million were also signed by Gomes.
“It will appear now that their intention is just to turn over to the AMLC, but our understanding is to give it back to Bangladesh. I think everybody heard that. We just want to make a clarification that he has no objection to the physical turnover of the money to the Bangladesh government. It is just a physical turnover because effectively the Bangladesh government already received it because he (Gomes) signed the acknowledgment receipt,” she added.
However, she explained the lawyers of Wong are now hesitant to turn over the abandoned funds to the Bangladesh government.
The end of the hearing gave Gomes the opportunity to personally ask Abad about the money.
“But you called me, and say within half an hour, ‘the money is coming. You have to receive it, you have to sign the receipt of the funds.’ You told us, ‘that you have to witness the counting of each and every dollar’,” Gomes told Abad, after the hearing.
“Right now I think both parties do not have an agreement, let’s see how we can solve this,” Guingona told Abad and Gomes.
Gomes, accompanied by other Bangladesh officials, approached Guingona and Abad after the hearing apparently to ask for the immediate turnover of the money to the representatives of the Bangladesh government.
Prior to this, Abad sought clarification during the hearing from the Senate panel on what to do with the money after Wong’s lawyers objected to giving consent to the formal turnover of the amount to the Bangladesh government.
“The AMLC would not just automatically give funds to a claimant without going through the process. I think the law provides the filing of a forfeiture proceeding because nobody knows who owns the funds,” Ferrer said.
“Since this is really a government-to-government procedure, we are just a private party. We leave it up to the Senate Blue Ribbon committee to guide… right now, we just follow the law,” he added.
Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile stressed the need to follow the law as the money allegedly stolen from the Bangladesh central bank entered Philippine jurisdiction.
Sections 12 and 17 of Republic Act 9160 or the Anti Money Laundering Act (AMLA) require forfeiture proceedings in court before restitution could be affected by AMLC in favor of the aggrieved party, he said.
“While we want to help Bangladesh in this matter as we want them to help us if this happened to us, we have to observe our laws,” Enrile said.
The legislators lauded Wong for turning over the $4.63 million and P38.28 million abandoned funds of Gao Shuhua with Eastern Hawaii Casino and Leisure Corp. to the AMLC.
Silverio Benny Tan representing Solaire Resort and Casino Manila said they were just waiting for a court order on the remaining P107 million “dead chips” and over P1 million in cash confiscated from Chinese players.
Tan said Solaire received P1.365 billion worth of funds from Philrem, of which P1.03 billion went to two casino operators while P361 million was played via the casino’s premium program.
On the other hand, lawyer Katrina Nepomuceno, representing Leisure and Resorts World Corp., said a total of P532 million went to Midas Hotel and Casino consisting of P421 million played and P111 million withdrawn as winnings.
BBN/SK/AD