8 pyramid scam suspects charged
The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) recently filed before the Department of Justice (DOJ) syndicated estafa charges against eight officials and agents of a suspected pyramiding firm who allegedly divested 28 of their clients of nearly P20 million.
NBI Director Nestor Mantaring said they filed criminal charges against Royal Manchester Five Trading Corp. (RMF) chairman and president Cyrus Hao; corporate secretary Edwin Rosas; board member, treasurer, and chief finance officer Rowena Uy; board member and chief operations officer Joseph Bualoy; board member and executive vice president Josedev Colina; and agents Cyril Alexander Digo, Estrella Digo and Clarence Lao.
The complainants told the NBI-Fraud and Computer Crimes Division under assistant regional director Vicente de Guzman III that from 2002 until 2008, RMF officials and agents reportedly enticed them to invest their money in the company, promising them an interest rate of three to five percent.
They were told that their money would be placed in high-end currency trading abroad, particularly in
However, on March 3, the investors learned that Hao had gone abroad, bringing their money with them. The investors said the checks he issued in March bounced since the account was already closed. The RMF office was also closed and the suspects could no longer be contacted.
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) records also showed that RMF was only authorized to engage in trading goods such as cars and automobiles and should not have been involved in foreign currency exchange trading and futures trading.
“Applying the principle of piercing the corporate veil, the personalities involved in the corporation are therefore necessarily not licensed to engage in soliciting funds from the public in the guise of investment contracts utilized in foreign exchange trading or futures trading,” Mantaring said in his report.
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