February 29, 2016—It was announced by local Filipino police that a $100 million money laundering scheme is being investigated. Allegedly, casinos and financial institutions are responsible for the scheme and it appears to be the largest scheme of its time in the Philippines. Financial regulators are still investigating. They told media sources the $100 million was put into the banking system by being sold to a foreign exchange broker. This underground broker transferred the funds to at least three Filipino casinos. The broker then bought the funds back, and transferred the money into overseas accounts for a short period of time.
Information suggests the funds came from cyber-criminals who hacked an account overseas, perhaps in Bangladesh. Investigators believe the hackers live or are based in China. The Inquirer has claimed four bankers and three high-ranking government officials were part of the scheme. This has not been confirmed.
There is an investigation being led by the Anti-Money Laundering Council. The council did sit on the story, without making comment to media to complete their secret investigation and to take action. Now the council has confirmed at least part of the investigation details.
The funds were said to be placed into the Philippine Financial System belonging to Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. It was the Makati City Branch. The funds were exchange for pesos, then sent through a Chinese-Filipino junket broker account. Seeing this transaction, the bank immediately filed a transaction report with the AMLC to report the suspicious movements. A report was also filed with the Philippines Central Bank.
Conflicting reports alleged the funds moved through Macau, either through a junket operator or casinos. The investigation is ongoing. When more details are confirmed and police take action on the parties involved, more information will be released to various media sources.