CA upholds 455-year prison term for ‘pyramid queen’

MANILA, Philippines — The Court of Appeals (CA) has upheld another conviction of “pyramid queen” Rosario Baladjay, and her husband Saturnino, in connection with the investment scam by their firm Multinational Telecoms Investors Corp. (Multitel) in the 1990s.

In a 15-page decision released last week, the CA’s Special 17th Division affirmed in full the November 2015 verdict of the Makati City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 56 that sentenced the couple to at least 455 years in prison. 

The CA dismissed for lack of merit the petition of the Baladjays seeking reversal of the RTC’s ruling.

It agreed with the trial court’s findings that the Baladjays were guilty of 65 counts of violation of Section 8 of the Securities Regulation Code for selling unregistered securities to the public, which carries a penalty of seven to 21 years in prison per count.

The CA, in the ruling penned by Associate Justice Elihu Ybañez,  also affirmed the RTC order for the couple to pay the complainants in this case a total of P8 million.

While the couple was sentenced to a total of 455 years in prison, such a sentence is reduced to 40 years at most under the three-fold rule on penalties in criminal cases.

The CA previously upheld the Baladjays’ conviction in several other criminal cases involving various complainants and also rejected similar petitions they filed.

The Supreme Court also upheld the conviction of Baladjay in a July 2017 ruling.