regulation
Philippine Court of Appeals freezes 25 crypto wallets in flood-control plunder probe
The AMLC-driven freeze covers 86 bank accounts, four investment accounts, one insurance policy and 25 virtual-asset wallets tied to an unnamed lawmaker under Republic Act 7080.
The Philippine Court of Appeals on September 21 issued a freeze order covering 86 bank accounts, four investment accounts, one insurance policy and 25 virtual-asset wallets tied to an unnamed prominent lawmaker in a widening flood-control plunder probe, Crypto Briefing reported. The court acted on an application from the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), which disclosed the order publicly on October 1 after a reporting embargo lapsed.
What was frozen
- Bank accounts: 86
- Investment accounts: 4
- Insurance policies: 1
- Virtual-asset wallets: 25
- Total instruments: 116
The AMLC did not disclose the aggregate value of the frozen assets or the specific exchanges and platforms where the virtual-asset wallets are hosted, the Manila Times confirmed. The council cited confidentiality rules governing active freeze-order proceedings.
Legal basis
The court found probable cause under Republic Act No. 7080 — the Plunder Law — which criminalizes the amassing of ill-gotten wealth of ₱50 million or more by a public officer, directly or through nominees. The AMLC's filing argued that the targeted individuals had "no apparent operating revenues to support the scale of their investments."
How the funds moved
The AMLC's account trace described the flow as passing through "multiple intermediaries, corporations, commercial bank accounts, a money service business and a virtual-asset platform." The council specifically called out virtual assets as having been used to "add layers to transactions and make the movement of suspected illicit funds more difficult to trace." That phrasing echoes FATF typologies on crypto layering and will be cited by the AMLC in any extension of the freeze order.
Who it covers
The AMLC has not named the "prominent lawmaker" or the corporation and other individuals covered by the order, citing the freeze-proceeding confidentiality rules. The flood-control probe — a broader investigation into infrastructure contracts awarded between 2023 and 2026 — has generated multiple parallel asset-tracing actions in the past 90 days.
What to watch
- Whether the AMLC extends the freeze to additional wallets or exchanges beyond the initial 25 as the probe progresses.
- Whether the Court of Appeals publishes a redacted version of its resolution identifying the lawmaker and the exchanges holding the wallets.
- Which domestic exchanges (Coins.ph, PDAX, Binance PH, Maya Bank's digital-asset arm) are hosting any of the 25 wallets — relevant because the Philippines' SEC and the BSP have both been active in VASP enforcement in 2026.
- Whether the probe produces an indictment under Republic Act 7080, which carries a reclusion perpetua ceiling in the Philippines.
Pattern
This is the second Philippine freeze order in six months to use the Plunder Law against on-chain assets alongside traditional bank accounts, following the BSP's September suspension of Coins.ph and DCPay from the InstaPay and PESONet rails, covered here. The two actions reflect a Philippine enforcement stack — AMLC on asset freeze, BSP on payment rails, SEC on VASP registration — converging on the same category of illicit flow. Virtual-asset layering is now a routine item in Philippine plunder cases rather than a novelty angle.