MANILA — The Anti-Money Laundering Council has obtained another freeze order from the Court of Appeals covering assets linked to a prominent lawmaker, a corporation, and several individuals and entities linked to alleged anomalies involving flood control projects and a broader government budget kickback scheme.
The CA issued the freeze order in a resolution issued September 21 after finding probable cause that the assets are related to plunder.
The freeze order covers 86 bank accounts, four investment accounts, one insurance policy and 25 virtual asset wallets.
Financial investigation revealed that the individuals involved had no apparent operating revenues to support the scale of their investments, and the funds associated with said investments were also moved through multiple layers involving individual intermediaries, corporations, bank accounts, a money service business, and a virtual asset platform.
The use of multiple recipients and financial channels complicated the tracing of the funds, and increased their transactional distance from their alleged source, which was traced by the AMLC to funds allegedly associated with corruption and plunder cases involving the lawmaker.
The AMLC said the case illustrates how emerging financial technology is being exploited to conceal suspected kickbacks.
It said virtual asset service providers and multiple wallets were used to layer transactions, making them harder to trace.