PAGCOR urged to return casino revenue earned from stolen Bangladeshi millions

A Philippine senator is urging the country’s president to allow the country’s gaming regulator to return some of the money stolen from the Bangladeshi central bank.

Earlier this week, Eugene Manalastas, president of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), told a Senate hearing that the regulator was willing to return the share of casino revenue it earned from gaming activity involving the stolen Bangladeshi millions.

If you’re just joining us, February saw (allegedly Chinese) hackers steal $101m from Bangladeshi bank accounts in New York, of which $81m was transferred to a Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) branch in Manila. From there, the money was withdrawn through remittance firm Philrem Services Inc and then funneled through the local casino industry by two Chinese junket operators.

To date, only $5.5m of the cash has been recovered from a different junket operator, Kam Sin ‘Kim’ Wong, although Wong has promised to produce a further $9.7m within two weeks. Wong claims another $17m in still in Philrem’s hands, a claim the remittance firm’s execs have rejected. RCBC’s embattled CEO suggested this week that his firm would honor at least some of the outstanding debt to Bangladesh.