‘High-rollers’ linked to cyber-heist millions
Print Edition
A Chinese junket operator in Manila yesterday said two high-rollers from Beijing and Macau were responsible for bringing US$81 million stolen by hackers from Bangladesh’s central bank into the Philippines.
Kim Wong, a long-time Chinese resident of the Philippines, denied any wrongdoing or knowledge of who masterminded one of the world’s biggest cyber heists, but vowed to give back a small portion of the money with him.
He told a Senate hearing in Manila he would return US$4.63 million in cash to a government watchdog investigating what appears to be a Byzantine money laundering scheme.
Unidentified hackers infiltrated the computer systems of Bangladesh Bank in early February and tried to steal US$951 million from an account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York it uses for international settlements.
Many attempted transfers were blocked, but US$81 million ended up in casinos in Manila and with junket operators, and most of it vanished.
Finding out where it went has sorely challenged the Senate hearing, already hamstrung by the country’s strict banking secrecy and by casinos not covered by anti-money laundering laws.
Wong denied any involvement in the heist, but named two Chinese men from Beijing and Macau who he said “brought in” the US$81 million.
“I have nothing to do with the forging of bank documents for the US$81 million. I don’t know the source of the US$81 million,” he said.
One billion pesos (US$21 million) of the stolen funds ended up in a Philippine bank account of Eastern Hawaii, a company run by Wong, according to a criminal complaint filed by the Philippines’ Anti-Money Laundering Council.
Wong said he was owed 450 million pesos by one of the Chinese men after helping him settle a casino debt. The rest was used to buy gambling chips for junket clients, Wong said.
Wong also said he had received a further US$5 million in stolen money via Philrem, a foreign exchange broker, of which US$4.63 million remained, and which he was willing to return.
An official at Solaire, a casino resort owned and operated by Bloomberry Resorts Corp, told the same hearing that US$29 million ended up with them and was credited to an account of the Macau-based high-roller.
With the credibility of the Philippines’ banking system and anti-money laundering efforts at stake, part of the hearing was held in English for the sake of what its chairman called “foreign observers.” They included Bangladesh’s ambassador to the Philippines.
Some of the day’s testiest exchanges were between senators and representatives of the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp (RCBC), which initially received the stolen money from the Bangladesh bank account in New York.
The US$81 million was deposited in four dollar accounts at an RCBC branch in Manila on February 4.
The accounts had been opened with a deposit of US$500 in May 2015.
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