Heist exposes Manila’s dirty money secrets

RCBC bank manager Maia Deguito (right) during a Philippines Senate inquiry into the allegations stemming from the Bangladesh bank heist. (Photo: AFP)

When mystery hackers launched a stunning raid on Bangladesh’s foreign reserves, a plot worthy of a John le Carre spy novel was sparked in the Philippines, exposing the Southeast Asian nation as a dirty money haven.

The $81 million stolen from the Bangladesh central bank’s American accounts in February was immediately sent via electronic transfer to the Philippines’ RCBC bank, with the thieves deliberately targeting their laundering location.

The Philippines has some of the world’s strictest bank secrecy laws to protect account holders, while its casinos are exempt from rules altogether aimed at preventing money laundering.

“The Philippines is very attractive (for dirty money) because our laws have gaping holes. It’s easy to launder money here,” Senator Sergio Osmena, who is pushing for stronger anti-money laundering laws, said.

Still, if the thieves were to get away with their audacious heist, the money had to be moved quickly through the banking system and into the casinos. And it did.

Authorities took four days to order a recall of the money.

But by then it had vanished — leaving in its place a tale of death threats, bribes, shady business figures and a bank manager who could be the villain or a victim.

“I did not do anything wrong. If this is a nightmare, I want to wake up now,” the manager of RCBC bank, Maia Deguito, told ABS-CBN television this week after authorities stopped her at Manila airport from trying to leave the country.

“I live everyday in fear.”

With authorities in Bangladesh and elsewhere bamboozled over who masterminded the cyber-heist, Deguito’s role as manager of the bank that accepted and shifted the money has come under intense scrutiny.

She has accused the bank’s president, Lorenzo Tan, of ordering her to move the money. He has fiercely denied the accusations.

Philippines senators who launched an inquiry this week into the affair are yet to determine whether she was a scapegoat or not, but are convinced she was not the mastermind.