Victims seek cancellation of pyramid hucksters’ passports

Victims of pyramiding investment scams are seeking the Department of Foreign Affairs’ cancellation of the passports of the people who allegedly duped them, to prevent their leaving the Philippines or compel their return since some have already gone abroad.

One of the victims’ lawyers, Argee Guevarra disclosed that Conrado Ariola, former chief executive officer of Multinational Telecoms Investors Corp. and then marketing head of Five-Vision-ISI, and his wife Patrocinia are now in Pnomh Penh, Cambodia while their children –Joseph Valiant, Florencia, Ma. Louela and son-in-law Alfonso Silvestre –have fled to New York in the United States.

Guevarra said these people were able to flee the country despite their inclusion in the Bureau of Immigration’s watchlist and Sen. Robert Jaworski’s instruction to the BI to bar the exit of big-time pyramiding operators.

Ariola and his wife were blamed by Multitel president Rosario Baladjay as the ones responsible for the collapse of Multitel during a Senate inquiry.

This developed as 95 employees and retirees of Intel Corp. who were victimized by the Ariolas filed 6,080 counts of large-scale estafa, violation of Batasan Pambansa 22 or the Bouncing Check Law and money laundering law against them at the Department of Justice.

Aside from the Ariolas, also named respondents to the case were Christel Silvestre, Jason Quinez, Arturo Saez, Brenda Lanuza, Evangeline Medina, Jenny Codina, Joseph Salas, Mhaila Andaya, Catalina Naraja, Edgar Fger, Dante Resurreccion and lawyer Willard Wong.

Performance Exchange Corporation was also included as respondent since the victims claim that the foreign trading company became the repository of the pyramiding proceeds and handled the accounts of members of the Ariola family. This company was shut down by the Securities and Exchange Commission last year.

Earlier, 37 victims of a P10-billion pyramiding syndicate filed 2,043 counts of estafa, grave threats, violation of the Anti-Money Laundering Law and the Bouncing Checks Law before the DOJ against the Ariola family and their cohorts who established a firm called Five Vision Consultancy Inc. that was later changed to Intercontinental Services Inc.

Facing indictment with the Ariolas are their conduits and fronts in the collapsed pyramiding operations of Five Vision such as Salas (president), Andaya (vice president for finance), Ariola Jr. (VP for marketing) Naraja, (HRD head), Resurreccion (chief trader) and Wong (corporate secretary).

The complainants’ lawyers said a single charge of syndicated estafa is punishable with life imprisonment to death while AMLA violation carries with it a penalty of between seven to 14 years in prison and a fine of at least P3 million or double the amount of the sum involved in the offense.

The victims filed the case before the Office of the Senior State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuno and was assigned to State Prosecutor Mark Jalandoni, who is a member of the DOJ’s Special Investigating Panel tasked to conduct preliminary investigation in pyramiding cases.

The joint complaint-affidavit accused the respondents of engaging in large-scale swindling and pyramiding activities that victimized more than 12,000 investors who invested their lifetime savings in non-existent foreign currency trading operations for a monthly investment rate of between four to 15 percent.

The 2,043 counts for syndicated estafa, B.P. 22 and AMLA violations represent the single biggest action against a group of pyramid scam artists whose operations were traced from their past involvement in the Multitel pyramiding fiasco.