The foreign exchange remittance company that converted into pesos the $81 million stolen from the Bangladesh central bank Thursday apologized to the ambassador of the country and offered to return all proceeds it made from the transaction.
Salud Bautista, president of Philrem remittance company, responds to questions during the Senate hearing on Thursday. Grig C. Montegrande
Speaking before the Philippines Senate blue ribbon committee, Philrem Services Inc. president Salud Bautista said her firm would issue a check in the name of the government of Bangladesh representing her company’s earnings from the deal.
“We are sorry,” Bautista said, adding Philrem did not know the funds were stolen from Bangladesh.
She said the firm would immediately write a check for P10,474,654 (equivalent to ) and turn it over to Bangladeshi representatives.
Earlier during the Senate hearing, Maia Deguito, branch manager of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) which is at the center of the money-laundering scandal, said Kim Wong had referred to her the supposed holders of the four fictitious accounts, who received part of the money stolen from Bangladesh Bank.
Deguito also linked RCBC president/CEO Lorenzo Tan to Wong.
Wong is among those being investigated by the Senate in the laundering of $81 million but he skipped the hearing because his lawyer said he had been out of Philippines since March 4 for medical treatment.
He will return to the Philippines to appear before the Senate blue ribbon committee, according to his lawyer.
“In the letter, he expressed willingness to appear before the committee on March 20 onwards,” Wong’s lawyer Macel Fernandez told the committee.
Guingona set the next hearing on March 29 at 1:30 p.m.
Asked if Wong would be available at such time, Fernandez said: “He will be available but it depends on the outcome of the medical treatment.”
