SEN. Erwin Tulfo yesterday urged the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) to deploy officers or agents to monitor huge amounts of money brought inside casinos and other physical gambling sites.
Tulfo, chairman of the Senate Committee on Games and Amusement, made the suggestion during the AMLC budget briefing after learning that the council does not have any personnel assigned to physically monitor casino high-rollers.
He said the absence of such AMLC officers made it easy for the BGC Boys, or the Bulacan Group of Contractors, to bring in millions of pesos to casinos, which they allegedly laundered.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson, in a privilege speech, named the BGC Boys as Henry Alcanatara, former Bulacan 1st District engineer; Brice Ericson Hernandez, Alcantara’s former assistant engineer; Jaypee Mendoza, a project engineer; Arjay Domasig, an Engineer 2; and Edrick San Diego, a contractor.
Tulfo said casino operators are not expected to report high-roller gamblers, such as the BGC Boys, because they earn a big income from their huge transactions.
“They’re not reporting this to you, to your agency kaya po nakakalusot. Kaya nga po, ang sinasabi natin, puwede po ba in the very near future or as soon as possible, maglagay po tayo (ng officers), kasi nasaan po ang compliance officer, tahimik po ‘yun dahil income po nila ‘yun. Definitely, they will not report to you, kasi common sense dictates (it) (They’re not reporting these to you, to your agency, that’s why [these huge transactions] happened. That’s why I’m asking you to field in your men in casinos in the very near future [to check on the activities of high-rollers] because compliance officers will not report them to your agency because they expect high income from them. Definitely, they will not report to you. Common sense dictates it),” he said.
Tulfo said deploying officers in casinos will not be difficult since there are only three big casinos to monitor.
He did not name the establishments, even as he urged the AMLC to reprimand casinos for not reporting the gambling activities of the BGC boys.
AMLC Executive Director Matthew David said they will study Tulfo’s proposal, but explained that it is not their mandate to assign or deploy officers to physically monitor casinos and other physical gambling sites.
“Definitely, makakatulong naman po ito sa pag-mo-monitor. Aaralin po namin ‘yun (but) under the law po, hindi po kami required mag-assign ng mga personnel sa ating mga covered persons. Pero nevertheless, we are conducting frequent, on-site, regular examinations and compliance checking (Definitely, that will help in our monitoring. We will study that, [but] under the law, we are not required to assign personnel to covered persons. But nevertheless, we are conducting frequent, on-site, regular examinations and compliance checking),” David said.
David said it is the responsibility of casino operators to conduct due diligence on high-roller gamblers through their respective compliance officers or designated officers, who are tasked “to conduct profiling of their customers.”
He stressed that casinos are expected to strictly comply with the regulations.
“Ang responsibilidad po ng mga casinos as covered persons, ganito po. Number one, conduct due diligence. Number two, ‘yung recording, gathering the documents about their customers, and filing of transaction reports (These are the responsibilities of casinos as covered persons. Number one, conduct due diligence. Number two, recording, gathering the documents about their customers. And [number three], filing of transaction reports”),” he said.
TRANSACTION ANALYSIS
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, chairman of the Committee on Finance, asked if AMLC analyzes transaction reports of casino players to verify the legitimacy of their income.
“Do you analyze each and every transaction report to know if they come from legitimate sources? The whole point of reporting to AMLC is to know whether transactions are legitimate or not. That is why the banks normally ask us (about our income) if the transactions are big. I presume in casinos it is the same. Do you analyze?” he asked during the hearing.
He was referring to the BGC Boys’ transactions, who supposedly brought in large amounts of cash in casinos, converted them to chips, gambled, then converted the chips back to cash, thus “laundering” their loot from anomalous flood projects.
David admitted that the AMLC is unable to examine every single transaction report due to their sheer volume.
He said they employ a prioritization system in their investigation, which focuses on flagged high-risk transactions, such as corruption and terrorism financing.
Tulfo on Sunday hit casinos for what he said was their failure to strictly implement their “know your customer” policy, which allowed the BGC Boys to gamble away millions in public funds coming from anomalous flood control projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
Tulfo said he is set to file a resolution seeking to investigate casinos that have turned a blind eye to questionable transactions and refused to report them to the AMLC.
