He came prepared

Kim Wong, whose name has surfaced since the onset of the $81 million money laundering scam that has put the country in a bad light, has finally spoken on the issue. You will recall that when news of the crime surfaced, he left for Singapore for medical reasons. He did promise to tell everything he knows about the scam, and on Tuesday's senate hearing on the matter, he did.

Wong obviously came prepared. He had documents, dates, figures, timelines and even photos to give credence to his testimony. The names of two Chinese nationals, one from Beijing and the other from Macau, were reveled at the prodding of the senators.

Wong wanted to submit their names and photocopies of their passports in a sealed envelope for the "Senate's eyes only." He also detailed the events that led to Maia Deguito meeting Shuhua Gao, the person who allegedly instructed Deguito to open the five accounts that have since then been exposed as having fake documents. Wong claimed to serve as interpreter, nothing more.

Wong also claimed that Gao owed him money for losing at a casino. So when Gao asked for helping "bringing money in" to invest here in the Philippines, he obliged as he was promised to be paid. On the day the "dirty money" was expected, Wong repeatedly called Deguito at the behest of Gao to ask if funds were indeed coming in. They did in four tranches, with different amounts into four of the five accounts created by Deguito.

So the money has entered the country. These were then consolidated into yet another account supposedly opened by Deguito without the permission of the account holder, William Go. Then the funds were all sent to Philrem, again upon the supposed instructions of Deguito, where they initially claimed were transferred to two casino corporations, and a certain Weikang Xu.

Here is where it gets interesting. In the two previous senate hearings, Philrem officials never mentioned the name of Kim Wong. But when Wong testified at the Senate, he said that Philrem delivered eighty million pesos to Solaire. Twenty million pesos were also delivered by Deguito at the same place, even showing Deguito's car being serviced by the valet, complete with date and time. Wong also has a picture of the one hundred million pesos being deposited into Solaire's vault.

Wong also claimed that he picked up one hundred million pesos in cash three times on different dates from Michael Bautista's home, along with five million dollars in cash. But when asked by Senator TG Guingona what color gate did Bautista have, he could not immediately answer. He knows all the dates, amounts, time, and personalities but could not remember the gate color? Bautista sort of bailed him out by saying he was indeed at his house. I would think that would have warranted Salud Bautista of Philrem to mention all these transactions in the previous hearings.

Then another revelation came. According to Wong, seventeen million dollars were still with Philrem, which they strongly denied. The hand washing, of course, continues.

So we have two new personalities, making a total of three Chinese nationals supposedly involved in the laundering of stolen Bangladeshi money, all of whom cannot be currently found. We do have photos of Gao and Ding care of Wong, but Xu is still a mystery.

Wong has admitted that almost a billion pesos went into his account at Midas casino, and Gao did pay him his debt of four hundred fifty million pesos. Wong has also detailed how the casino industry works, particularly junket operators and agents, and how they make money. Wong seems forthcoming, but the senators, and many who are following this incident, have doubts. 

There are still questions to be asked, and while Wong has "divulged" what he knows - in what seems like a thoroughly prepared presentation - nothing is crystal clear.  (To be continued)