Senate uncovers suspicious financial activities in Guos' businesses
MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, who is among the senators leading the public inquiry into Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO), uncovered suspicious financial activities in family businesses of former mayor Alice Guo and her sister, Shiela Leal Guo.
At a Senate hearing on Tuesday, Gatchalian referenced financial statements showing the Guos' embroidery business having recorded only P29 million in sales and P1 million in profit since 2014, yet its income was about P576 million.
Similarly, their farm business made P455 million in sales with a small profit of P1.4 million but had P4.4 billion in deposits.
"My suspicion is that the money entering these businesses are not declared to the government, but are instead taken to build the POGO hub in Bamban," Gatchalian said in Filipino.
Alice Guo was identified to be part-owner of Baofu Land Development Inc and incorporator of Hongsheng Gaming Technology, later renamed Zun Yuan. The two companies were POGO hubs in Bamban, Tarlac where she was mayor prior to her dismissal from office earlier this year.
The POGO hubs are at the center of criminal complaints the AMLC is looking to file before the Department of Justice.
Also attending the hearing was Shiela, who was transferred to Senate custody on Monday after she was arrested in Indonesia due to a fraudulent passport and extradited to Manila. She was named as the corporate secretary, treasurer, and chief finance officer of many of the Guos' family businesses.
Shiela, however, denied knowledge of the dealings, and claimed she merely signed whatever they would ask her to sign.
AMLC readies cases
The Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) stated at the hearing that the case buildup against those involved in illegal POGO activities has been ongoing and is likely to be filed starting this week.
“For the criminal case for money laundering, we are in coordination with different law enforcement agencies and we are expecting to file the first batch of money laundering cases, hopefully within the week,” AMLC Deputy Director Adrian Arpon said.
Arpon and the lawmakers did not explicitly confirm whether Alice Guo would be named in the first set of complaints.
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