Suspected swindler of generals arrested

One of the suspected brains behind a financial scam involving billions of pesos where hundreds of investors were victimized — including a dozen military and police generals — was arrested yesterday in Cubao, Quezon City.

Senior Superintendent Napoleon Castro, newly installed Quezon City police director, said Emilia Sison, 48, of 95 Doña Juliana St., Filinvest Homes in Cainta, Rizal, was arrested in front of a bank in Araneta Center in Cubao shortly after shopping at Rustan’s Department Store at 3 p.m.

Castro said Sison, proprietor of the International Commodities Scheme (ICS), reportedly engaged in a pyramiding scheme and was wanted by authorities for several cases of estafa.

Sison and ICS came under police investigation for widescale financial fraud that had victimized investors after the company suddenly ceased operations.

The company’s alleged come-on was a 15 percent profit per month to prospective victims who had to invest P50,000. However, the principal amount can only be withdrawn by an investor after six months.

As a guarantee, the company issued post-dated checks in the form of a monthly interest to each stakeholder.

The scam attracted not only active and retired police and military generals but also enlisted personnel in the police and military service. Most of them had to apply for a loan at the Armed Forces of the Philippines Savings and Loans and Association Inc. to be able to invest.

Police and military officials, who were also victimized by the scam, were mostly occupying key finance positions in the police and military organizations.

Sison was apprehended along with her security escort Domingo Mirasol, who introduced himself as a policeman, on the strength of an arrest warrant issued in Davao.

A Camp Crame official said that the suspect is the sister of another "pyramid" scam suspect, Ding Sison, owner-proprietor of Exsior, which reportedly also bilked scores of investors of billions of pesos using the same scheme.

Ding Santos was also being hunted by authorities. He is reportedly hiding in the United States.