Thousands gypped in P12-billion scam
Politicians, soldiers, cops, OFWs among those duped
By Nancy C. Carvajal
Philippine Daily Inquirer
12:17 am | Wednesday, November 14th, 2012
BLOOD MONEY Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas on Tuesday assures victims
of a multibillion-peso pyramid scam in Pagadian City that the government
will run after the perpetrators of the scheme. RICHEL V. UMEL/ INQUIRER
MINDANAO
A company managed by a former janitor and driver, and founded just early
this year, has duped at least 15,000 people in Mindanao and the Visayas
of P12 billion in a pyramid scam, an official of the National Bureau of
Investigation said Tuesday.
The NBI identified the company as Aman Futures Group Phils. Inc.
"Some of the victims committed suicide and others have become violent
and sick when they learned their hard-earned money was gone," said
Virgilio Mendez, NBI deputy director for regional operations services,
who was investigating the scam.
Among Aman Futures' victims were local politicians, police and military
personnel, government workers, market vendors, farmers, drivers, retired
employees and overseas Filipino workers, according to Mendez.
He said the number of "complainants from across the country is piling up."
Mendez said Justice Secretary Leila de Lima had ordered the NBI to file
estafa cases against executives and directors of Aman Futures namely
Manuel K. Amalilio, Fernando "Nonoy" R. Luna, Lelian Lim Gan, Edward L.
Lim, William L. Fuentes, Naezelle M. Rodriguez and Lurix Lopez.
High return
The first investors of the company were low-income people but
professionals and retired employees followed because of the promise of a
high return on investment, Mendez said.
"The first clients of Aman Futures were market vendors in Pagadian City
who invested P1,000 with a 70-percent return after one week," he said.
The NBI deputy director said Luna, who managed the multibillion scam,
"is a former driver and utility person for a company located near the
Pagadian City public market."
Luna's boss, Amalilio, is a 32-year-old Malaysian, whose Malaysian name
is Mohammad Suffian Saaid. His wife is identified as Abigail Pendulas,
and they have two children, ages 2 and 1.
Luna and Amalilio and their families are now in hiding, according to Mendez.
Private planes
The NBI official said Amalilio reportedly owned three private planes and
two units at Upper Mckinley Hills Garden Villas in Taguig City. He also
owns a house in Cebu City and Dapitan City.
"He visits his offices in Mindanao and Visayas using private planes and
luxury cars," Mendez said.
He said Aman Futures was able to lure investors by offering a 30-percent
to 40-percent return on investment within eight days, and a 50-percent
to 80-percent profit for 18 to 20 days.
"The amount of interest varies depending on the investment or money
placements," Mendez said.
Modus operandi
He said the modus operandi of Aman Futures was to offer a return through
a postdated check of the entire sum of the investment plus a profit up
to 80 percent.
"Because of the huge interest, the number of investors of Aman Futures
increased tremendously," Mendez said.
Due to its success in Pagadian City, Aman Futures expanded its business
to other cities and provinces like Lanao del Sur and Zamboanga in
Mindanao and to Cebu City, he said.
Lands, houses mortgaged
With the huge increase in the number of investors, Aman Futures raised
its required minimum investment from P1,000 to P200,000," Mendez said.
"And in order to meet the new requirement, investors pooled their
resources and others mortgaged lands and houses to comply with the
requirement," Mendez said.
He said investors started lining up at 2 in the morning although the
office of Aman Futures Group had yet to open at 8 a.m.
No queues for VIPS
Every day, some 3,000 people were lining up at the office of Aman
Futures in Pagadian City. "But VIPs were not required to fall in line
and could deal directly with Luna," Mendez said.
"The complainants said at the beginning that they thought they could
realize their dreams to own cars and expensive things by making more
investments in Aman Futures," Mendez said.
He said the victims trusted Aman Futures largely because of endorsements
from local officials.
"They trusted Aman Futures because even local government officials had
openly endorsed it and admitted to have invested also," Mendez explained.
Mendez said the NBI had received reports that government funds could
have been used to invest in Aman Futures.
"We are currently investigating if government funds were used by local
officials who invested in the scam," Mendez said.
He declined to name the officials, but said charges would be filed
against these officials should they be found to have used public funds.
Mendez said investors had started filing complaints in the NBI against
Aman Futures in September for its failure to pay back their money.
Bouncing checks
At first, the victims could receive cash by just showing their official
receipts. But later, investors were issued postdated checks with a
50-day maturity date in lieu of cash.
"But the checks issued by Aman Futures started to bounce and the account
was eventually closed," Mendez said.
Mendez said some victims had resorted to burning the houses of relatives
of Aman Futures employees. "So far, two houses of Luna's relatives were
torched by victims who demanded they return their money," he said.
Mendez said that complainants had been going to Keppel Building in the
Cebu City Business Park office of Aman Futures, registered under another
name, FRETZ and Sha Trading.
In Lanao del Sur, Mendez said, Aman Futures used another name, Jachob
Amer Rasunan Co.
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