American gets life term for large-scale illegal recruitment

A 70-year-old American was sentenced to life imprisonment by a Pasay City Regional Trial Court which found him guilty of large scale illegal recruitment and estafa.

Judge Hedrick Gigolo of RTC Branch 117 also ordered Charles "Glenn" Craven to pay a fine of P100,000 and indemnify his victims a total of P250,000.

Craven was also found guilty of estafa charges filed by the complainants, who were physical therapists and nurses, and was ordered to serve a maximum of six years in prison. Court records showed that Craven, who has a business address at Suite 1402 Traders Hotel Manila, Roxas Boulevard, Pasay, offered a "fly-now-pay-later-program."

He promised the complainants job placements in hospitals and clinics in mainland United States and Honolulu, Hawaii from July 2000 to February last year.

Nine of the complainants responded to flyers, which the court said, could have only been printed and distributed by Craven himself. Another complainant read a newspaper advertisement of Craven’s business.

Craven asked the complainants to pay $100 in processing fee, $500 for commitment bond and another P4,500. Two of the complainants even worked for Craven for a few months before discovering that the accused had not processed their application papers and other documents.

The complainants further discovered that Craven’s company was not authorized by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and that the American has also been criminally charged in a Pampanga court.

The complainants sought the help of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), which arrested Craven in an entrapment operation.

In his defense, Craven said he operates a foreign investment and financing business that finances trips abroad of health workers. He also said he has tie-ups with several local companies recognized by the POEA.

But this was junked by the court after the only witness for the defense, American William Robert Evans, 72, told the court that Craven’s job orders in Hawaii were non-existent.

Meanwhile, five top officials of a lending firm were charged before the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office for extending loans to public school teachers without a license from the Central Bank.

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), which filed the complaint on behalf of the Manila Teachers’ Savings and Loan Association, said the officers of the Philcredit Lending Services, a subsidiary of the Air Materiel Wing Savings and Loan Association Inc. (AMWSLAI), violated the Revised Non-Stock Savings and Loan Association Act.

The complaint named Philcredit Lending Services incorporators Ricardo Nolasco and directors Felisa Marin, Luvin Manay, Thaddeus Estanilla and Carlyzar Divinagracia as respondents. NBI Deputy Director for Special Investigation Services Fermin Nasol said the five are also officers of Philcredit Lending Services.

It was learned that Nolasco also sits as chairman of the AMWSLAI Board of Trustees. Marin, Manay and Estanilla sit as AMWSLAI trustees. AMWSLAI’s by-laws limits its membership to military and permanent civilian personnel of the Philippine Air Force, their dependents, other organic personnel and the dependents of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Department of National Defense and the Philippine National Police.— Nikko Dizon and Romel Bagares