FORMER Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) branch manager Maia Santos Deguito has been found guilty for her participation in one of the world’s largest cyber heists on Thursday, January 10.
Presiding Judge Cesar Untalan of Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 149 convicted Deguito of eight counts of money laundering for being involved in the operation that stole a total of $81 million from Bangladesh Central Bank account in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in February 2016.
“Wherefore, premises considered, this court hereby finds Maia Santos-Deguito, guilty, beyond reasonable doubt, hence this court hereby imposes a penalty of imprisonment and fines,” the verdict stated as reported by The Philippine Star.
Deguito was accused of violating the Anti-Money Laundering Act for facilitating the transfer of the stolen cash four fictitious accounts at the RCBC branch on Jupiter Street in Makati, which she had managed.
“She implemented, executed and transacted all these deposits and withdrawals involving huge and big amounts in United States dollars within a timeframe of less than two hours,” the Makati trial court stated.
The stolen money in the four accounts was then merged into one account under the name of William Go before being withdrawn and spent in casinos. Deguito’s legal counsel Demetrio Custodio said that they would file a motion for reconsideration.
“I should say that we have very good grounds to file a motion for reconsideration. We would like to point out here that this case will still follow a very long process. This is just a momentary setback in so far as Ms. Deguito is concerned,” Custodio added as reported by BusinessWorld.
Custodio denied Deguito’s involvement in the said heist noting that the accused is “a very lowly bank officer who has nothing to do with operational matters.” He believed that “there should be more people who should be more liable for this.”
“She could not have done this on her own. A bank the size of RCBC could not have allowed a lowly bank officer to have planned this, so there are others involved in this,” Custodio told The Philippine Daily Inquirer.
“The conviction of Maia Deguito is consistent with the bank’s position that it is the victim in this situation and that Ms. Deguito is a rogue employee,” RCBC spokesperson Thea Daep said as she repudiated claims that the bank is behind the said money-laundering scheme.
The court had imposed fines for each count of her AMLA violation. The following are the different amounts per count: $5,985,833.47, $9,760,124.15, $19,951,502.13, $14,312,185.54, $7,236,154.62, $22,735,000.00, $15,215,977.26 and $14,323,269,46.
Deguito has bee sentenced with four to seven years in prison and fined her of $109 million for the eight counts of AMLA violations she was facing.
RCBC was fined with P1 billion in 2016 by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas for allowing such crime to occur within its system.
