Napoles controls NGOs in pork scam, bank investigator tells court
The bank investigator of the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) told the Sandiganbayan Monday that accused mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles controlled the nongovernment organizations that received the pork barrel funds of Sen. Jinggoy Estrada.
During Estrada’s bail hearing from plunder over the pork barrel scam, AMLC investigator Orlando Negradas said their findings showed that funds were transferred from the bank accounts of the bogus foundations to the accounts of Napoles’ corporations.
He said at least P123.92 million were transferred from the Metropolitan Bank account of Social Development Program for Farmers Foundation Inc. (SDPFFI) to the bank accounts of JLN. Corp., JLN Global Properties Development Corp., and to that of Napoles’ daughter Jo Christine.
Meanwhile, at least P22.3 million were transferred from the Metrobank account of Masaganang Ani Para sa Magsasaka Foundation Inc. (Mamfi) to JLN Corp., he added.
Negradas said Napoles’ employees brought their JLN Corp. identification cards for them to withdraw the funds from the NGO bank accounts. They were also presidents and incorporators for the NGOs.
“Together with the confirmation, the transfer of funds, and withdrawal slips, we concluded that the NGOs are controlled by Napoles,” Negradas said.
According to the AMLC bank inquiry report, millions of funds were transferred from SDPFFI to Napoles’ corporations from 2009 to 2011, the smallest amount at P270,000 and the largest at a whopping P53 million in one single transaction.
Meanwhile, funds ranging from P1.75 million to as much as P8.23 million were transferred from Mamfi to JLN Corp., the report said.
Napoles has maintained that she did not control the NGOs, saying her employees and not she were the presidents and incorporators of these NGOs.
Napoles is facing multiple plunder and graft charges for allegedly masterminding the elaborate scheme of pilfering lawmakers’ Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF) to ghost projects for kickbacks.
She is serving a separate life sentence for the serious illegal detention of principal whistleblower Benhur Luy.
The hearings over the pork barrel scam have resulted in the detention for plunder of Senators Estrada, Ramon Revilla Jr. and Juan Ponce Enrile, as well as former representatives Rizalina Seachon Lanete and Edgar Valdez. AU
