Citibank update: Francis Bryan Ang indicted for qualified theft
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Here’s an update to one of the recent high-profile banking scandals in the country. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has found probable cause in the qualified theft case filed by Citibank against its former employee, Francis Bryan Ang, who supposedly ran away with more than P135 million of clients’ funds.
The DOJ has recommended the filing of 87 counts of qualified theft through falsification of commercial documents against Francis Bryan Ang, a former assistant vice president of Citibank’s Citigold Wealth Management Group and Relationship Manager of Citibank Binondo branch.
Ang allegedly stole away peso and dollar funds with a combined amount of at least P135 million. The DOJ consolidated two cases filed against Ang, the first one amounting to P97 million and $832,000 and the other with amounts P1.6 million and $43,000.
The case was made public in 2010 when the bank discovered fraudulent transactions supposedly initiated by Ang.
The DOJ ruling gave weight on the prosecution’s allegation that Ang himself executed affidavits admitting the crime. The former bank executive supposedly confessed that he “tampered with the funds of bank clients in the following manner:
(1) simulated transactions including fund transfers, cash withdrawals and applications for manager’s checks, by forging the signatures of clients in bank documents;
(2) appropriated the funds as his own and/or transferred the same to his intended beneficiaries; and
(3) avoided detection by either changing the client’s addresses on record with the bank.”
Ang also supposedly admitted offering time deposits with interest rates higher than the rate offered by the bank without his superiors’ knowledge or permission.
He also allegedly changed the clients’ addresses on record or implemented hold-mail orders in order to prevent them from receiving notices or bank statements.
The DOJ, however, found no probable cause in the filing of estafa charges against Ang. According to the DOJ, one of the essential elements of the crime of estafa is that “the offended party suffered damage as a result.” Citibank, the DOJ resolution ruled, is “not an offended party, nor has it suffered the requisite damage as an essential element of the crime of estafa.”
The DOJ ruling also dismissed the case against 11 other Citibank executives for lack of evidence. The DOJ panel of prosecutors did not find the complaint sufficient to file charges of syndicated estafa against Oliver Salu, Sherjack Siao, Joanne Salud, Joan Karla Uy, Robinson Siao, Steven Uy, Philip Keith Ang, Esther Gobio Ang, Antonio Samson and Belina Cancio
.Ang remained at large since he left the country in August 2011 after Uson uncovered questionable transactions involving the bank accounts of "high-priority" clients.
The panel gave weight on Ang's affidavits and counter-affidavits admitting his tampering of bank documents pertaining to the transactions of his clients.
He also confessed that he simulated transactions, including fund transfers, cash withdrawals and applications for manager's checks by forging the signatures of clients in bank documents and appropriating the funds as his own and/or transferred the same to his intended beneficiaries, which included the accounts of his other clients in order to meet the rate of return he promised to them.
The former bank executive, however, managed to avoid detection by either changing the client's addresses on record with the bank or implementing the "hold mail" order to ensure that clients would not receive bank notices and statements.
As a relations manager for high-priority clients of the bank, the DOJ ruled that Ang was clothed with certain powers and authorities in handling the accounts, servicing the clients and making investment sales.
"Considering such position, along with the power and influence that go with it, his representations to the clients could not be said to be actually false, and therefore, not constitutive of the element of deceit, as contemplated in Article 315 (2) (a) of the RPC (Revised Penal Code)," the panel stated, in finding sufficient basis to indict Ang for qualified theft under Article 310 of the Revised Penal Code.
Ang's illegal activities were discovered by the bank when it conducted a review of the transactions in its Binondo branch in July 2010.