Justice Adrian Ferdinand Sugay has reversed the dismissal of the charges against the owners of Philrem Service Corp, a remittance firm due to the firm’s failure to report various suspicious transactions which opened the door for the money stolen from the Bangladesh bank about 4 years ago. The Department of Justice has ordered charges to be filed against the company with a link to $81-million money laundering case in 2016. The owners, Salud and Michael Bautista, together with their compliance officer Anthony have been charged for proceeding with transactions relating to illegal activity., which led to the money laundering.
The Department has pointed out that Philrem Service Corp is covered under Republic Act No. 9160, therefore, its officers should be charged for concealing illegal transactions even when they have full knowledge of it. Also pointing out that the same recommendation facilitated the dismissal of charges against Casino Operators Kam Sin Wong and Weikang Xu due to lack of insufficient evidence. Philrem involvement in the money laundering that took place in 2016, when an unknown person stole $81 million from Bangladesh Central Bank, which later ended in the Casino Industry in the Philippine through Philrem proved the firm guilty of the offence.
