In shame and in growing outrage

She called over the weekend.

With shame, she identified herself as an investor in the Tibayan Group.

And then with growing outrage, she asked why nobody seems to care anymore that Jesus Tibayan and other senior officers of the pseudo-investment company have not returned the money due his investors.

The woman, who did give her name, shared some interesting insights into the mindset of a defrauded investor.

• She has not mentioned her problem to family and friends in fear of being thought stupid for putting her savings in an unusually high interest-earning investment. "I invested what I have been able to save in the first 40 years of my life. I cannot hope to save that much in the next 40 years, even if I should live that long."

• She directly knows of other investors who have had to borrow expensive money to meet more immediate expenses such as children’s tuition and medical expenses. "Some of us used our retirement money. Some borrowed money to invest, with the thought that they would still be ahead because the investment would pay for the interest rate on the borrowed money and still have something to spare."

• She and some fellow investors have linked up to follow the movements of Mr. Tibayan. Despite an arrest order, Mr. Tibayan has been "malling" in Las Piñas, the base of the Tibayan Group. This group of investors has also listed down the license plate numbers of the cars Mr. Tibayan has used while going about his regular business (accompanied by the requisite bodyguards) but doesn’t seem seem to know whom in the National Bureau of Investigation to send it to.

The woman has been to the Securities and Exchange Commission to talk to compliance and enforcement division director Tomas Syquia. She has tried to talk to Anti-Money. Laundering Council executive director Vicente Aquino.

"All I want to know is: What are my chances of getting my money back?" the woman said.

Under the SEC charter, Tommy Syquia’s group can close down the operations of the Tibayan Group (which it has) and bring charges against the officers of the Tibayan Group against violations of the Securities Code (which it has).

But it cannot do anything about getting a refund for investors. AMLA’s Vic Aquino can freeze the bank funds of the Tibayan Group. But again, it cannot do anything about getting a refund for investors.

To get the refund, investors must go to court and force the Tibayan Group to give them back their money.

If the pseudo-investment company cooperates and expresses intention to refund its investors, a list of investors is prepared. If asked, the SEC can help the investors go through the list with a fine-toothed comb because a pseudo-investment company could, after all, also include fictitious names in effect, paying itself.