Former RCBC branch manager sentenced to imprisonment over money laundering

January 10, 2019

A former bank branch manager of the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) was sentenced Thursday by a Makati court for eight counts of money laundering over the $81 million cyber heist of Bangladesh's foreign exchange reserves in 2016.

The Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 149 sentenced Maia Deguito to four to seven years mprisonment for each count and ordered to pay more than $109 million in fine.

Government alleged that Deguito facilitated transfer of laundered money from the Bangladesh Bank to multiple accounts under four fictitious names at the RCBC branch on Jupiter Street, Makati City in February 2016.

The money was then allegedly combined into a single US dollar account in the name of Filipino-Chinese businessman William Go. This was withdrawn, converted into pesos, and transferred to at least three casinos.

Demetrio Custodio, Deguito's lawyer, said they will file a motion for reconsideration, news reports said. DMS