Philippine 'pork-barrel' mastermind 'sent millions of dollars to US'

The dollars were acquired to purchase properties in the United States, supply the needs of lawmakers travelling abroad, and provide allowances for Napoles’ family on their frequent trips overseas, according to Stephen Cascolan, counsel for a group of whistleblowers who were former employees of the businesswoman.

Cascolan said Napoles, the alleged brains of a 10-billion-peso (Bt7.24 billion) racket that turned allocations from the congressional Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), or “pork barrel”, into ghost projects and kickbacks, had “millions of dollars abroad to purchase prime properties”.

The government has asked the US Embassy in Manila to freeze assets of Napoles in the United States and turn these over if they prove to have been illegally obtained.

Cascolan said the method purportedly employed by Napoles to remit money abroad in violation of Philippine laws penalising the salting of foreign exchange abroad would form part of the evidence to be submitted to Washington to recover her illegally acquired properties in the United States.

Napoles is facing plunder charges, along with Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Bong Revilla, and 34 other people.

Affidavits executed by the whistleblowers and submitted to the National Bureau of Investigation said Napoles bought dollars from money changers identified as Hector Ang and Michael Ty.

“Transactions of dollar conversions and purchases from them were paid through their accounts in Metrobank with the equivalent peso value,” said Marina Sula, a former Napoles employee.

In his affidavit, Benhur Luy, a former Napoles aide who was detained by the businesswoman in a bid to prevent him from revealing the scam, said Napoles would give orders to him and other employees to contact either Ang or Ty and purchase dollars from them.

“Before they would give us the dollars, the equivalent peso amount should have already been deposited into the accounts of Ty or Ang, inclusive of bank charges,” said Luy, who has filed charges of serious illegal detention against Napoles, for which she is now under detention.

The whistle-blowers said Napoles also engaged Esquire International Financing Corp. and Edzen Enterprises to remit US currency abroad.

Sula said the dollars were either deposited in various bank accounts abroad or personally brought out when she and her family went on extended vacations abroad. She said that Napoles and her family usually took a three-month vacation and brought “lots of cash when they leave”.

She said that Napoles and her family sometimes brought with them dollars packed in their suitcases on their trips to the United States, where they were met by her brother, a US citizen.