Syndicated estafa case filed vs company

About 800 investors, who claim to have been swindled, have filed a case of syndicated estafa with the Department of Justice against a company with alleged previous links to the Multinational Telecom Investors Corp. (Multitel), a pyramiding firm headed by Rosario Baladjay.

The group has filed for claims of up to P450 million to recoup their investments and interests, documents obtained by The STAR showed.

Named as respondents were Iris Zante Aquino, alias Iris de la Cruz; her husband, Felix Aquino; and Aquino’s brother-in-law, Francisco San Jose, all officials of the Everflow Group of Companies.

In their complaint, the group, led by Eduardo Leung and Ricardo Deduque, alleged that Everflow officials had solicited peso and dollar investments from the public with a six-month maturity period, and issued post-dated checks reflecting the accruing monthly interests on their investments.

The complainants said investors may opt to encash their principal investment and final interest at the end of the six-month period, or roll over their investment for another six months.

Everflow was supposed to re-invest the funds to generate revenues for the interest payments.

Payments halted

But they said Everflow stopped paying the interest on their investments last December when the company’s finances reportedly started to dry up.

Initially, they said Everflow invested its money in Multitel but was forced to pull it out when the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a cease-and-desist order against Multitel in January 2002.

On May 9 last year, the complainants said Everflow reportedly struck a deal with and invested in another company, Crisis Solutions Inc. (CSI). But they alleged that Everflow failed to re-invest a "substantial portion" of the funds or document them.

They said Everflow had promised to pay back their principal investments and the accruing interests upon the completion of its supposed deal with CSI for the sale of a real estate property.

The deal, however, did not push through. The complainants said they have not been paid since last December.

One of the complainants said that when the SEC issued a cease-and-desist order against Everflow last October, the CSI stopped doing business with the company.

As investors pressured Everflow for payments, the complaining investors claimed that the company ended up buying out CSI.