Saturday, August 26, 2006

German bank may divulge account after receiving Tribune email

German bank to divulge account via legal means:

"The presidential family may not be off the hook yet on the issue of the controversial alleged “secret” bank account in Munich, Germany, which reportedly holds some $500 million, said to be in the name of the presidential son, Rep. Juan Miguel Arroyo.

An official of the HypoVereinsbank in Munich, Hartmut Pfeifer, Media Relations Head, informed the Tribune yesterday that the bank is more than willing to cooperate with Philippine authorities on the controversial account, identified as account number 87570-23030-32100-6271-571.

In response to an e-mail sent by the Tribune, the bank official said HypoVereinsbank will provide assistance to a requesting party provided it is done within the legal framework.

Pfeifer did not elaborate, although he appeared to know of the controversy in the country regarding the account.

The bank, however, neither confirmed nor denied that such an account exists, but two multinational bankers Tribune spoke with yesterday took the view that if no such account exists in that bank in Munich, this would have been quickly denied by the bank, rather than have the bank’s name continually dragged into the Philippine political controversy, and even court German and European authorities to check on possible money laundering operations connected to that account.

It will be recalled that when the Palace-sanctioned team led by Col. Victor Corpus claimed that a senator and the detained President Joseph Estrada had various bank accounts abroad and made public bank account numbers said to have been deposited in various named banks in the United States, the banks abroad quickly issued a letter of denial, stating that no such bank account exists and pointed out too, that their banks don’t use such numbers for their clients’ accounts.

In the case of the Munich bank, it neither confirmed nor denied that the account exists."

The damn Tribune again! REad the whole thing.

No comments: