$84-B fake dollars, gold bars seized

Police seized $84 billion in counterfeit US Federal Reserve notes following the arrest of six people accused of selling bogus bills and gold bars in separate raids in Quezon City and Makati.

The suspects, identified as Cresencio Roxas, Jesus Lacson, Adelino Ortiz, Ernesto Villanueva, Edward Diaz and Basi Estomato, are believed to be part of a syndicate involved in big-time swindling.

The group’s operation was uncovered after a businesswoman, Marciana Lao, complained to the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) that she paid $53,000 to the suspects for two gold bars which turned out to be fake.

Superintendent Carlos Baltazar, head of the DILG’s Special Task Force, said Lao’s brother-in-law sold the gold bars to a Taiwanese legislator, landing him in jail. Baltazar added that the group has also victimized three Japanese businessmen and several traders in the country.

Three weeks of surveillance allowed DILG agents to arrest two of the suspects last Saturday inside Max’s Restaurant in Quezon City. The other four fell inside the Little Caesars’ Pizza House along Pasong Tamo in Makati last Monday.

The agents said they seized 287 counterfeit US Federal Reserve notes, with a face value of $84 billion, and two fake gold bars from the group.

Baltazar added that the notes "looked real" but were found to be fake by a US Secret Service agent from the US Embassy.

The fake gold bars, on the other hand, were actually gold-plated lead that had a small hole filled with about 5 grams (.18 ounce) of genuine gold from which the group drew samples for prospective buyers, Baltazar said.

Based on documents seized from the suspects, the group has also victimized four companies and two Filipino businessmen. Baltazar said they are coordinating with these other victims for filing additional charges against the suspects.

Before this week’s arrests, police had seized more than $112 billion in fake US reserve notes in two different parts of the country.

Authorities said they had no evidence that the seizures were related to the arrest in the US of one Kevin Jackson who was accused of trying to cash a bogus $100 million Federal Reserve bearer bond allegedly issued in 1934.

Jackson, of Hyde Park, Utah, claimed he received the bond through an intermediary of an unnamed Filipino general. – Cecille Suerte Felipe, AP wire report