5 Aman execs to tell all vs Amalilio

MANILA, Philippines - The five executives of Aman Futures Group Phils. Inc. who surrendered to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) last Sunday told authorities yesterday that they requested to be taken into the custody of the bureau because they were willing to tell the whole truth about their involvement and participation in the investment scheme. 

The incorporators faced a special Department of Justice (DOJ) panel and bared how their group was able to dupe some 15,000 people and where the P12 billion in investments went.

The board of directors of Aman subscribed to their affidavits before the special panel of prosecutors chaired by Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Edna Valenzuela at the start of the preliminary investigation on the syndicated estafa complaints filed by six groups of victims from Pagadian City.

NBI agents secured Leila Lim Gan, Eduard Lim, Wilanie Fuentes, Nazelle Rodriguez and Lurix Lopez during the hearing.

The investigating panel will determine whether the five could qualify as state witnesses based on their sworn statements that detailed the flow of investments in their firm as well as its existing assets.

The documents, however, were not made available to the media.

Valenzuela said all records would be released along with the resolution at the end of the preliminary investigation to avoid premature judgment of the public on the case. 

Last week, the Court of Appeals issued a 20-day freeze order covering 25 bank accounts registered in the names of Aman Futures and its head Manuel Amalilio through an ex-parte petition filed by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLAC) and the Office of the Solicitor General.

The petition sought to avoid the possibility that the funds in the accounts would be withdrawn and placed beyond the reach of law enforcers.

During the hearing, their lawyer Jose Cabatu Jr. said the five Aman officials would still submit separate counter-affidavits to address charges in the next hearing set on Dec. 5 in Pagadian City.

The DOJ panel earlier set another hearing in Pagadian City for submission of counter-affidavits of other respondents who only have addresses there. 

Cabatu, however, said that they might not be able to appear in the next hearing as they have been placed under protective custody of the NBI in Manila.

He also cited security reasons amid reports that the situation in Pagadian remains very tense and volatile. 

Tale of lies and schemes

The five immediately left the DOJ, refusing to talk to reporters. Later, they held a press conference at the NBI.

They said they received threats to their lives from the investors, even if they were also victims of the scam as they also lost their own money.

Cabatu said the incorporators got the ire of investors, who were not paid on their due dates starting Sept. 14.

He said Gan and Lim manned the office in Cebu City. Fuentes and Rodriguez were in charge of monitoring the investments in the regional hospital in Ozamis City, while Lopez was assigned to monitor investments in Dipolog and Zamboanga City.  

They have their own territories, according to Cabatu.

Fuentes, Rodriguez and Lopez became involved with Aman as investors.

The siblings Gan and Lim started their involvement with Amalilio as employees in early 2012. 

Lim was employed as a utility boy running errands, while Gan monitored the bank accounts, bank deposits and balances of Amalilio in his personal bank accounts, but not yet with Aman.

This was sometime in February 2012.

Gan said she is an accounting major and first worked with a travel agency. She was then “pirated” by Amalilio who doubled her salary. Gan said she met Amalilio through her brother Lim, and a mutual friend of Amalilio. Lim knew Amalilio since 2007 and guided him in his travels.

Sometime in 2011, Lim said he had a mild stroke and asked for monetary help for hospital bills. Amalilio helped him out.

In 2012, Amalilo told Lim he would establish a business called Aman and asked the latter to work for him. The sister would handle the checks and do the accounting. They withdrew money from Western Union on the payments made in Aman.  

“I did not see anything bad in Amalilio, not until he disappeared,” said Lim.

He said he last saw him on Sept. 18, 2012 at the Marriott Hotel in Metro Manila, when he delivered papers to him.

Cabatu said the money came in through different banks in different accounts under the name of Amalilio. He refused to name the banks.

The money, though monitored by Gan in Cebu, was all under the control of Amalilio as far as withdrawals were concerned because he was the only authorized signatory in all accounts, the incorporators said.   

They would not say what was the amount lost in the investments and refused to describe how much or give any details on the amount collected by Aman.

“I would like to clarify that these incorporators were never involved in the operations and management in the Pagadian scam which is now the center of attention because most or all of the investors of those complaining come from Pagadian City. And in fact I come from Pagadian City and I would know that. So far there are no complaints against the five,” said Cabatu.

Cabatu said the sworn statements were taken by the NBI and submitted to the DOJ yesterday afternoon during the preliminary investigation.

A sixth member of the Aman board, Fernando Luna, did not appear before the DOJ but sent his lawyer, who said the respondent intends to submit a counter-affidavit in the next hearing.

Three of the 38 respondents summoned by the DOJ – Connie Paner, Dhurwen Wenceslao and Marian Paner – appeared before the panel and asked for more time to answer the charges.

Another Aman agent, Isagani Laluna, earlier appeared before the panel and submitted his counter-affidavit denying involvement in the scam.

As expected, Amalilio did not appear in the hearing despite the subpoena sent by the DOJ panel to his addresses in the country, including his house in Cebu.

He is reportedly in Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia.

Valenzuela explained that while their panel intends to accord due process to all respondents in the complaints, there is a deadline for them to answer the charges under DOJ rules.

“If he (Amalilio) doesn’t appear despite due notices, we will consider the complaint against him submitted for resolution based solely on evidence submitted in the complaint,” she told reporters in a press conference after the hearing.

Yesterday’s hearing covered only the first five complaints received by the DOJ from Pagadian City.

The panel received last week two more sets of complaints involving some 50 policemen and firemen from Pagadian who were also victimized by Aman.

Valenzuela said they would set another hearing for preliminary investigation of the new complaints.

Asked when the DOJ resolution can be expected, the panel chair said it would depend on the influx of the complaints.    

Determining the impact

Meanwhile, LPGMA party-list Rep. Arnel Ty called on government regulators to determine the impact of the P12-billion pyramiding scam of Aman on small financial institutions after the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) shut down some rural banks in Mindanao and Ilocos Norte.

Ty said the NBI’s Anti-Fraud Division has yet to establish whether those who pulled off the scam channeled some of the funds to formal financial institutions.

However, based on initial evidence, investors drawn to the rip-off were issued post-dated checks to cover their supposed lucrative interest earnings and returns of principal, the lawmaker said.

“The checks started bouncing when the scam collapsed,” he said. “We are not overly concerned about any potential effects the scam might have on formal financial institutions. Just the same, we are counting on regulators to be extra watchful,” he said.   – Edu Punay, Paolo Romero, Christina Mendez, Roel Pareño, Celso Amo