Ping: Nani keeping $20 M in HK bank

Turning the tables on his accuser, Sen. Panfilo Lacson accused yesterday Justice Secretary Hernando Perez of keeping a multimillion-dollar account in a Hong Kong bank fed by proceeds from alleged extortion activities.

Lacson, whom authorities accused of laundering the proceeds of criminal activities in foreign banks, said Perez maintains a $20-million deposit in Coutts Bank in Hong Kong.

The STAR tried but failed to reach Perez but a spokesman said the DOJ chief said it was the first time he heard of such a bank.

Lacson, for his part, refused to elaborate on his accusations and only said the anti-money laundering measure now pending in Congress could very well apply to Perez.

"You can ask him about that," the senator said, reiterating he would not attend today the scheduled joint hearing being conducted by three Senate committees on charges that he (Lacson) was involved in drug trafficking, kidnapping and multiple murder and laundered the proceeds of such crimes in foreign banks.

The charges were leveled against the senator by Perez, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Reynaldo Wycoco and Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) chief Col. Victor Corpus.

Corpus had claimed that one proof that Lacson was laundering money overseas was the senator’s ownership of a building in San Francisco, California.

But Lacson, who went to the US during the congressional recess, said he had documents to prove that the building is actually owned by an American firm.

Lacson, however, made no mention of the multimillion-dollar bank accounts he was accused of maintaining in the US and Canada. Perez had claimed that his US counterpart, Attorney General John Ashcroft, would provide a verification of the alleged bank accounts.

Such a verification, government lawyers said, may be damning to Lacson because he has repeatedly and publicly denied he had any bank account outside the Philippines and that he would voluntarily go to jail if authorities can prove he owns the accounts.

The country’s anti-graft laws also provide that possession of unexplained wealth disproportionate to one’s income as a government official is prima facie evidence for the filing of corruption charges.

Before he was elected senator, Lacson was chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the controversial Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF).

Perez, on the other hand, was already a successful lawyer and taught law in a Catholic university after several terms in the House of Representatives before he was named justice secretary.

Lacson, however, maintains that Perez and Corpus could not prove their charges and refused to present evidence to refute the charges until the government files charges against him.