Former RCBC branch manager says she made a mistake in trusting RCBC CEO

MANILA – Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) Jupiter, Makati City branch manager Maia Deguito on Tuesday maintained her innocence in the $81-million heist involving stolen funds from the Bangladesh central bank.

In a statement read during the fourth Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing, Deguito claimed that she became an ''unwitting scapegoat'' in the elaborate plan to steal millions of dollars from the account of Bangladesh Bank in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

''Other resource persons have laid practically all the blame on me for the alleged money laundering as if I had the resources at my mid-management level to put all the pieces and places for a crime involving almost P4 billion,'' Deguito said.

''Truly, a crime of this magnitude could be possible only with the participation of people from the highest officialdom of the bank in cahoots with extremely wealthy businessmen whose far-reaching powers and influence span several countries."

The $81 million stolen by alleged Chinese hackers ended up in five accounts of RCBC, the owners of which were later found to be fictitious.

The funds in these accounts were eventually consolidated into the RCBC Jupiter branch account of businessman William So Go, who denied owning the account. The funds were then coursed to remittance firm Philrem, which claimed sending the $81 million to two casinos and a Chinese casino player Weikang Xu.

Senators have also questioned RCBC officials for not acting quickly to prevent the flow of the money.

Deguito has clashed with RCBC president on-leave Lorenzo Tan. The branch manager said Tan knew certain individuals being linked to the fictitious bank accounts.

WATCH: RCBC's Tan denies involvement in money laundering case

Tan, for his part, has admitted knowing casino junket operator Kim Wong, who has been tagged in the opening of the dollar accounts used in the suspicious transactions, but Wong has denied any involvement in the heist.

Wong has since surfaced to testify that Deguito was responsible for setting up the fake bank accounts. He also tagged two Chinese casino high-rollers, identified as Shuhua Gao and Ding Zhize, in the heist.

READ: Kim Wong tags 2 foreigners in $81-M heist

The bank has since fired Deguito and senior customer relationship officer Angela Torres. Criminal charges were also filed against the two by the bank on allegations that the two were in cahoots.

In previous hearings, the RCBC management had squarely blamed Deguito for involving the bank in the multi-million dollar heist. An internal investigation by the bank also revealed that William Go's signatures in his bank documents were forged.

'I MADE A MISTAKE OF TRUSTING RCBC CEO'

But Deguito said she made the wrong move of trusting Tan, other RCBC higher-ups, and VIPs.

''On hindsight, I have unwittingly allowed myself to be set up as scapegoat when all I wanted was to advance my career, boost my performance as bank manager, and together with my husband, help provide for my family,'' she said.

''If there is a conspiracy as some honorable senators have publicly stated, I have no knowledge of it. If I had made mistakes, it is this: I believed and trusted bank president Mr. Tan, that I followed him that I should take care of his friends, that I relied on the fact that Mr. Tan could not have been unaware of a transaction that has been labeled the biggest bank heist in the history of the world. I am but a pawn in a high-stake chess game played by giants."

Meantime, upon questioning by Senator Bam Aquino, Deguito also denied being involved in the rediscounting of Go's checks, the proceeds of which ended in Go's RCBC account which he claims is not his.

She also claimed meeting the four people - Michael Francisco Cruz, Jessie Christopher Lagrosas, Alfred Santos Vergara, Enrico Teodoro Vasquez - who opened the US dollar accounts in RCBC on May 2015. These accounts remained unused until Feb. 5, 2016 when a payment of $81 million stolen from the central bank of Bangladesh entered the accounts.