Former Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) bank manager Maia Deguito’s appeal to overturn her conviction for her role in the laundering of $81 million stolen from Bangladesh Bank in 2016 has been denied by the Court of Appeals (CA).
The CA upheld the original verdict of the Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 149 in 2019, which found Deguito guilty of eight counts of violation of Section 4 (f) of RA No. 9160, as amended.
The court stated that all three elements of money laundering were present in Deguito’s case, including that she knew the money was from unlawful activity, performed acts leading to the facilitation of money laundering, and transacted the monetary instruments.
Deguito had allowed the transfer of the suspicious funds through the financial system and into accounts at her branch.
She was sentenced to 56 years in prison for the crime of money laundering.
The CA emphasized that Deguito could not downplay her role, as the unauthorized payment was made just nine months after she assisted in opening accounts at her branch.
The CA noted that one of Deguito’s major responsibilities was screening transactions according to Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA) guidelines, which she violated by allowing the opening of accounts based on fictitious identification documents.
The appeals court also rejected Deguito’s claim of judicial bias by the Makati judge.
The cyber heist led to a loss of about $101 million (P5.6 billion), with the majority of the stolen money being traced to the Philippines and the remainder to Sri Lanka.
