PIPC execs to be charged anewSTATE PROSECUTORS will file additional estafa charges against officials of Performance Investment Products Corp. (PIPC) in what is considered to be the biggest investment scam in the country’s history.
This time, the government will anchor its evidence on the testimony of elite investors, part of a larger group that was defrauded of up to P2 billion, Senior State Prosecutor Philip I. Kimpo said.
In a resolution written by Mr. Kimpo, the panel of probers recommended the filing of estafa charges against company owners and directors Michael H.K. Liew, Ma. Cristina B. Jurado, Ernesto C. Sy and Cristina G. Tuason.
Also included in the charge sheet are employees and agents Manuel Gonzalez, Barbara Garcia, Anthony Kierulf, Nicole Ortega, Mayenne Carmona, Oudine Santos, Ma. Pamela Morris, Nicoline Amoranto-Mendoza, Maricar Gonzalez, Christine Yu, Victor Jose Vergel De Dios, Jay Tengco, Jimbo Aragon, Janice Silvestre, Stanley and David Chua-Unsu.
Prosecutors said these workers did not conspire with the owners to commit the crime, but were mere accessories. The resolution was not clear if they will be charged with syndicated estafa, which is nonbailable and punishable by life imprisonment, or simple estafa, which carries a maximum jail term of 30 years.
The complainants, which included Montserrat Romulo Tantoco, Alejandro Montinola Recto and Nenita Ramos Licaros, alleged that they had been lured into shelling out at least $40,000 for high-yield debt instruments. The complainants claimed they had been defrauded of $1.5 million. Prosecutors had also indicted PIPC officials and workers based on a complaint filed by investors Jose E. Picorn and El Paraiso Farms, Inc.
"The crux of the complaint is respondent Liew... scurried off and took [the] private complainants’ money with him, leaving behind the corporation empty-handed," the resolution said.
The panel said the act of the corporation, which was used to dupe people of their money, would be regarded as the act of its individual stockholders. — I.P. Pedrasa
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tags: Philippines, Department of Justice, AMLC, Anti-Money Laundering Council, AMLA, NBI, N.B.I., Philippine National Bureau of Investigation, SEC, Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission, money laundering, tax evasion, Philippine Bureau of Internal Revenue, BIR, B.I.R., F.B.I., FBI, Federal Bureau of Investigation, IRS, I.R.S., Internal Revenue Service, IRS Criminal Investigation Service, FinCEN, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, U.S. Department of the Treasury, U.S. Department of Treasury, US Department of Treasury, ABN Amro bank, Hong Kong, British Virgin Islands, Singapore, China, Macau, South Korea, Canada, Manhattan, USA, United States, Toronto, Vancouver, The Egmont Group, The Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering, APG, Council of Europe, The Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF), Council of Europe Select Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures (MONEYVAL), Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group (ESAAMLG), Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing Terrorism, European Union, Financial Action Task Force of South America (GAFISUD), Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), International Monetary Fund, International Money Laundering Information Network (IMoLIN), Interpol - International Criminal Police Organisation, Middle East & North Africa Financial Action Task Force (MENAFATF), Offshore Group of Banking Supervisors (OGBS), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), United Nations Global Programme against Money Laundering, United Nations International Drug Control Programme, World Bank, World Bank - AML/CFT
