Monday, April 9, 2007

40 Years In Jail For Rural Bank Exec

(ABS-CBN News) - A former rural banker was convicted of four counts of estafa and sentenced to over 40 years in jail for the misuse of bank funds including a P12.6-million emergency loan from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

Hilario P. Soriano, former president of the defunct Rural Bank of San Miguel (RBSM), was found guilty of siphoning bank funds off to his personal company, Soriano Holdings Corp.

Court records showed that Soriano had misappropriated RBSM funds amounting to P21 million, making unauthorized transfers to his holding company, supposedly for investment purposes.

Soriano apparently ordered his employees to terminate RBSM deposits and take all the cash from various RBSM branches, which were then used to purchase manager's cheques payable to his holding company.

When depositors started withdrawing their money from the bank, RBSM suffered heavy withdrawals and went to the BSP for an emergency loan to fund the withdrawals.

However, the proceeds of the loan were delivered to Soriano's house instead of being utilized to fund heavy withdrawals from the bank.

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