DOJ: Aman directors willing to testify vs Amalilio

MANILA, Philippines - Certain members of the board of directors of Aman Futures Group Phils. Inc. want to become state witnesses, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said yesterday.

Speaking to reporters, De Lima said the cooperation of top executives could help the Department of Justice (DOJ) draw a clear picture of how Aman was able to expand in Mindanao and the Visayas.

The DOJ has started preliminary investigation on the complaints of victims of the scam and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) continues to gather more complaints and evidence, De Lima said.

Members of the Aman board are Manuel Amalilio, Fernando Luna, Lelian Lim Gan, Eduard Lim, William Fuentes, Naezelle Rodriguez and Lurix Lopez.

De Lima said the DOJ has started examining the qualification of Ma. Donna Coyme, a financial manager of Aman, who had submitted an affidavit “which looks extensive and gives a comprehensive picture of the scam.”

“We have yet to thoroughly assess her statement, but I have already ordered the NBI to secure her,” she said.

Coyme: I am a victim

Coyme, who surrendered to the NBI in Pagadian City, arrived in Manila yesterday to apply for the Witness Protection Program.

An NBI official presented the 43-year-old Coyme to the media. She was alone and without any lawyer, as she did it voluntarily.

The NBI requested the media to keep the location of the interview undisclosed for Coyme’s protection.

The widowed Coyme said she is not part of Aman and that she was also a victim.

“I am a teacher and entrepreneur as well,” she said.

“I have two tutorial centers in Pagadian. But because of the Aman thing, it has been closed. The parents feared because I owned the centers. I was the tutor of the children of Nimfa Luna, wife of (Fernando) Nonoy Luna.

“I tutored the  children of Mayor (Samuel) Co (of Pagadian City). I could not blame people why they accuse me to be a part of the syndicated estafa because my presence there  was a manifestation that I was one of them. I became a teller, a spokesperson, so their conclusion was I was an employee, which is wrong.”

Coyme insisted she is not an employee of Aman.

Coyme said a lot of investors in Pagadian City were complaining.

“They do not know the real story. I am also a victim. I lost a lot of money and money of my group. My stay in Aman in Pagadian was for the interest of my group. I even gave them snacks. As an agent as agreed in our group, I was not paid by Aman.”

Coyme said she used the profit that she had received from Aman to help her relatives, who had also invested in the firm.

“The investors paid me two percent of the profit for expenses in school and for my help since the school was being used as an office to accept investments,” she said.

“But I shared my blessings with the agents of Aman. Several people transacted with me, and invested through my account. I had about 300 investors under my account, more or less.”

Coyme said the collectible was about P500 million and the investment about P200 million. Some investments were as much as P50,000 cash and rolled over, she added.

Coyme said some of her family members and relatives also invested in Aman, including money kept for her two children by her husband.

“My collectible is supposedly about P720,000 which I lost,” she said.

“Maybe even millions. But I cashed out some of the money to buy things. I also lost the money of my children. My name was destroyed because of this.”

Some of the investments came from loans, some from Filipino investors in other countries, she added.

Coyme said Nimfa Luna, wife of Fernando, a board member of Aman, texted her that payments should be taken from Mayor Co at city hall.

Co is an agent of Aman, she added.

Coyme said when checks from BPI and BDO accounts were issued to investors in September 2012, the checks bounced.

Coyme said the investments of cash were as much as P30 million in one day.

Coyme said the money  were in thousand peso bills stacked in gym bags and deposited in BPI and BDO accounts of Aman.

“Each bag is about P15 million cash,” she said.

Coyme said in earlier months, investors were paid in only about eight days.

“I don’t know where the Lunas are,” she said.

“There was a lot of money. I also bought two cash counters for the bank tellers so they could count the money fast in our deposits. Relatives of the Lunas were usually in the Aman office. VIPs also went to the office to invest.”

Coyme said Aman also accepted investors from schools, VIPs, organization members, lawyers, and other prominent people.

Coyme said as much as P15 million to P30 million at a time were deposited in the banks.

Those not deposited were kept in a very large vault in Aman’s office, and used to pay the investors who wanted to cash out everyday, Coyme said.         

In her affidavit, she gave the names of the investors.

Coyme said more than 13,000 investors are listed in documents kept in her folder.

“I don’t think this could reach 100,000 (as reported on television),” she said.

“One of the brothers of Luna is a driver bodyguard of (Gov.) Jalosjos. I heard that Jalosjos got one of the vehicles of Aman since Aman was not able to pay him in his investment.”

Coyme said when trading in Singapore stopped on Sept. 26 due to problems with SEC and the AMLA, Luna’s brother Robert took him and his family.

“I saw Nimfa (wife of Luna) crying in her room. It might be a surprise revelation that the trading stopped. They even prayed for the problem. They said the trading stopped and was temporarily closed because the secondary license was not granted. So they were hoping that the secondary license would come. The meeting was held at Sept. 26, 3 p.m. in the office.”

Coyme said on Sept. 3, it became hard for Luna to hand out cash because cash was short.

Officials to be probed

De Lima said local officials reportedly involved in Aman’s illegal activities are already under investigation.

“The President said there will be no sacred cows.”

De Lima said the NBI is looking into reports that certain local officials aided Aman in duping victims, mostly ordinary workers who gambled their savings in a double-your-money scheme.

“But it’s too early to make conclusions,” she said.

“Some of them may also be real investors. Still, we have to determine whether or not they are part of the syndicate, if they were accomplices or not.”

The DOJ and Commission on Audit are looking into allegations that public officials had invested  government funds in Aman, De Lima said.

Pagadian Mayor Co was among those who had filed the initial complaint against Aman.

However, another complainant – Fire Officer Fabian Tapayan Jr. – accused him of receiving investments from the victims in behalf of the trading firm.

– Edu Punay, Sandy Araneta