It is not yet over for the other respondents in the $81-million cyberheist pulled off against the Bangladesh Bank in 2016.

A lower court last week convicted former Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) bank manager Maia Deguito of money laundering.

The Department of Justice (DoJ), however, said over the weekend that there are pending cases of money laundering against six other RCBC officers.

According to Prosecutor General Richard Anthony Fadullon, the charges lodged in complaint-affidavits by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) against the other respondents are yet to be resolved by the department.

The complaint-affidavits had been filed against former RCBC treasurer Raul Victor Tan, national sales director for retail banking Ismael Reyes, regional sales director for retail banking Brigitte Capiña, direct sales director Nestor Pineda, customer service head for the Jupiter business center Romualdo Agarrado and senior customer relations officer for Jupiter business center Angela Ruth Torres.

“There is no resolution yet from the preliminary investigation earlier conducted on that case,” Fadullon told Justice reporters in a text message.

Jupiter refers to Jupiter Road in Makati City where the RCBC branch under Deguito is located.

The DoJ chief fiscal said he will check the status of the case so the department can assess possible release of the ruling.

“We will check on the status of the case first before we can give a timetable on when the resolution could be released,” Fadullon added.

In its first ruling in 2017, the DoJ filed eight counts of criminal charges for violation of Republic Act 9160 or the “Anti-Money Laundering Act” against Deguito and alleged bank depositors “Michael Francisco Cruz,” “Jessie Christopher M. Lagrosas,” “Alfred Santos Vergara” and “Enrico Teodoro Vasquez.”

It found probable cause against the accused acting in conspiracy and in violation of Section 4F of the Anti-Money Laundering Law, after the Bangladesh Bank funds were hacked and stolen.

The DoJ, however, is yet to rule on the case against RCBC executives Tan, Reyes, Capiña, Pineda, Agarrado and Torres.

The first DoJ finding also indicted on four counts of violation of the AMLA Philrem owners spouses Salud R. Bautista and Michael “Concon” S. Bautista and Anthony C. Pelejo.

However, prosecutors later dismissed the complaint against the Bautistas and Pelejo for lack of probable cause.

The Justice department has also exonerated Filipino-Chinese and casino operators Kam Sim Wong aka Kim Wong and Weikang Xu “for insufficiency of evidence” and because the charges against them “were not supported by direct evidence but mainly by conjectures and implications.”

BY JOMAR CANLAS, TMT /  THE MANILA TIMES

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