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| The trial at Eastern Court resumes on March 14 |
The trial of two Filipinas charged with money laundering at Eastern Court described today how their ATM (automated teller machine) cards ended up being used to deposit “dirty” money derived from a scam, and from which “clean” money was then withdrawn.
Marissa Mesa, 46, testified that a long-time friend whom she
recommended to her employer’s brother to work as domestic helper, Elsa Razon, convinced
her to open an account with the HSBC.
Asked why she did it, Mesa said said, “because I treated
Elsa as family and I trusted her.”
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This was the first time she ever opened a bank account, she
said.
After she got her ATM card from HSBC, in which she deposited
$100, Mesa gave it to Elsa when they met at Statue Square in Central. Later, Mesa
said, Elsa told her to come with her to a beauty parlor. When she balked
because she had no money, Elsa lent her $1,000.
In the days that followed, deposits of various amounts totalling
$1,073,781 entered the account and almost all was withdrawn the same day the
deposits were made.
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Asked where Elsa is now, Mesa said she had no idea.
Her co-accused, Hazel Gepulani, testified that she left her
employer’s house earlier than usual to shop at the Wanchai Public Market, so
she could open an account with a nearby branch of HSBC.
After two hours, she got the ATM Card, a piece of paper containing the password and some other bank documents. She rolled the documents together with the ATM card, put them in her sling bag and went about buying food for her employer’s household.
Gepulgani said she noticed that the ATM card was missing the
next day, and suspected that it must have fallen from her bag while she was busy
in the market.
She said she did not notice the loss immediately because she
was loaded with a bag of rice in one hand and other food items in the other.
She did not report the loss because she thought it was not
needed since there was no money in the account anyway, and she did not report to
the police for the same reason.
The ATM account saw deposits and withdrawals amounting to
$282,400.
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The prosecutor told Gepulgani that she did not actually lose
the ATM card, that she had control over it, and she did the transactions herself.
She said she did not agree.
The testimonies came after Mesa’s lawyer asked Magistrate Vivian
Ho to strike out the video recorded interview of Mesa.
The lawyer explained that before the interview, the officer who
interrogated her induced her to say that she did not know Elsa, when in fact
they were friends since Mesa was 25 years old.
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She was also arrested at 10 am at her employer’s house and
the interview only started only at 1:30pm. During that period, she had no lunch,
he asserted,
“and we say this was oppressive to Mesa.”
Magistrate Ho declared
a 15-minute break; when she returned, she ruled that the video recording
will remain as evidence.
She adjourned the trial to March 14.
Mesa is out on
bail of $20,000 while Gepulgani posted a $1,600 bail.
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