Aman boss falls in Malaysia

MANILA, Philippines - A fake passport gave him away.

The long arm of the law caught up the other day with Manuel Amalilio, as immigration agents apprehended him for fake travel documents in Malaysia.

Amalilio owns the company that defrauded 15,000 investors in the Visayas and Mindanao of more than P12 billion, leading to violent attacks on Aman employees and offices last year.

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) announced yesterday that Malaysian authorities had arrested Amalilio, owner of Aman Futures Group Phil. Inc., in Kota Kinabalu.

Amalilio, a Filipino citizen, will be turned over to Philippine authorities and later detained at the NBI headquarters in Manila.

He fled the Philippines and went to Malaysia in September last year after Aman Futures was linked to the P12-billion scam.

Amalilio and other officials and employees of the investment firm were charged with syndicated estafa.

Presiding Judge Dennis Vicoy of the Pagadian City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 20 issued warrants of arrest for Amalilio and nine others in connection with the alleged scam.

The nine other suspects earlier surrendered to the NBI.

The nine accused include Aman president Fernando Luna, his wife Nimfa Caballero-Luna, and incorporators Donna Coyme, Lelian Lim Gan, Wilanie Fuentes, Nazelle Rodriguez, Eduardo Lim, Lurix Lopez, and Dhurwen Wenceslao.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed the charges after ruling in its preliminary investigation that Aman used false pretenses and fraudulent representations in order to lure the victims into investing money and causing damage to the complainants.

Aman officials were accused of defrauding investors when the firm lured investors by offering between 20 to 80 percent interest within several weeks.

The NBI said Aman began operating in February last year and told investors that the firm is connected with a Malaysia-based future trading company.

Fake passport

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said Amalilio was arrested by Malaysian authorities after he was caught in possession of a fake Malaysian passport and identification cards.

The businessman was brought to the Malaysian immigration office.

De Lima said a team from the NBI immediately coordinated with their counterparts in Kuala Lumpur for Amalilio’s deportation to the country.

“As we speak, we are working to get physical custody. He is being deported because he is a Filipino citizen,” De Lima said.

She explained that the return of Amalilio would have taken longer if he was a Malaysian citizen, since it would need extradition through the legal assistance agreement in the Southeast Asian region.

De Lima said the fugitive would be detained temporarily in the NBI headquarters in Manila upon his arrival before he would be presented to the Pagadian City RTC that ordered his arrest along with officers and agents of Aman.

In two separate charge sheets filed before the RTC last Jan.10, the DOJ said it found ample basis to file the two cases upon complaints of 43 investors who were claiming over P90.9 million in investments and returns as basis for the findings.

The special investigating panel chaired by Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Edna Valenzuela cited as basis “paper trail and documentary evidence” pointing to the direct and actual participation of the accused in the investment scam.

Pagadian City Mayor Samuel Co, who was named respondent in the two other complaints still pending at the DOJ, has not been included in the charges, even though it was noted in the complaint that he had caused the issuance of a business permit to Aman.

Co, distancing himself as an associate of Aman incorporators, also filed a separate complaint against the Aman group and its officers, saying he and his family were also duped of over P41 million, including rollover interests.

The Pagadian mayor welcomed Amalilio’s arrest.

Co said the victims are hoping that Amalilio would return their money.

He urged all Pagadian residents who were victimized by Aman to surface and help in the case build-up against Amalilio and the other accused.

DILG assures justice

Department of the Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas II vowed to give justice to the victims of Aman Futures.

“The leadership of the Philippine National Police is elated over the arrest of Amalilio,” Roxas said.

He said that with the arrest, justice would be given to the victims, including policemen, who lost their life savings in the investment scam.

Malacañang said the arrest of Amalilio proves the long arm of the law.

“Certainly if it’s true that he’s been arrested, it will bring justice to those whom he has defrauded and we hope that he can be brought to our shores – again, if the reports are true. We will verify that,” presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said.

State prosecutor Jaime Umpa said the arrest of the suspected scam leader is an indication that the justice system in the country is still working.

“With his (Amalilio) arrest, we hope that the victims could finally be vindicated,” Umpa said.

Umpa said that more cases are expected to be filed against Amalilio.

“When Amalilio left the country, many victims were resigned to the fact that they could no longer go after him, but with this new development, we are sure that more people will come forward to file complaints against him,” Umpa said.

He said it was likely that Amalilio brought his investors’ money with him when he fled to Malaysia last year.

Meanwhile, Romeo Esmelo, lawyer of the victims of another Ponzi scheme led by Jachob “Coco” Rasuman, would file a civil complaint to recover assets of the suspect.

Rasuman allegedly orchestrated the investment fraud that robbed investors of about P780 million.

“The civil complaint is a complaint to freeze all the assets (of the members of the Rasuman family named respondents in the case) for the satisfaction of my clients,” Esmelo said in the media forum Balitaan sa Aloha Hotel in Manila.

He said the DOJ believes that the property of the respondents in the case run to billions of pesos and the amount could be used “to compensate each and everyone defrauded by the Rasuman family.” - With Edu Punay, Delon Porcalla, Reinir Padua, Evelyn Macairan, Jigger Jerusalem, Roel Pareño