Pyramided

The arrest last Sunday of former Pagadian City mayor Samuel Co and his wife trains the spotlight back on the sordid case of the P12-billion Aman Futures scam that was said to have bilked some 15,000 investors, mostly in Mindanao and the Visayas. The case, still unresolved at this time with the principal accused having jumped the border to Malaysia, not only involved billions of pesos but also many prominent personalities, among them military personnel and politicians such as Co and his wife.

Aman Futures was started in 2012 by Manuel K. Amalilio, a Filipino of Malaysian descent. The company is registered in Malaysia, but appeared to have made its killing in Mindanao, where its branches eventually drew the attention of investors big and small with its promise of return on investment of up to 30-40 percent in eight days, and 50-80 percent in 17-20 days. The pitch sounded too good to be true, but it lured thousands of ordinary Filipinos, most of them from the low-income bracket, to part with their money and invest in the “double your money” program.

Like all pyramid scams, Aman was apparently able to pay off its early investors on time, as promised, thereby duping more people to believe in the setup. But as more and more investors plunked down their money—among them whole communities of teachers, retirees, policemen, and blue-income employees—the cash became scarce. Only months after Aman began its operations, scores of victims filed complaints alleging nonpayment of earnings from their supposed investments in the company. To date, some 8,000 formal charges of estafa have swamped Aman. Count in the families of the 15,000 duped by the scam, and the victims can easily number about 100,000 Filipinos.

Before the law could catch up with him, Amalilio decamped to his native Malaysia. He was apprehended by Malaysian authorities early this year, but on the much lesser charge of possessing false travel documents. What followed was a ludicrous diplomatic tango between the two countries. Malacañang had requested Amalilio’s deportation to pacify the now-explosive situation in the South, where enraged victims had ransacked shuttered Aman offices. Amalilio was to be sent back to Manila last Jan. 25, but minutes before his deportation, Malaysian authorities stepped in, reacquired jurisdiction over him, and sentenced him to a two-year prison term—in Malaysia. Befuddlement over that development led to speculation that Amalilio had powerful political backers in Malaysia, who intervened to ensure that he would be in safe hands in his home country.

The Co spouses were implicated because they were said to be, if not among the cofounders of the Aman branch in Mindanao, then two of its biggest investors and brokers, with thousands of people under their network recruited and seduced into forking over money for ghost investments. A Lanao del Norte court ordered the couple’s arrest last April on charges of syndicated estafa—an accusation Co has denied, claiming that his only role was to distribute Aman checks to investors, and that he, too, was a victim of Amalilio. He also said he had raised the alarm about the dubious scheme to the Pagadian city council but was ignored—a claim subsequently declared baseless by a special panel of the Department of Justice.

Co, after all, was no ordinary person helpless against what appeared to be an irresistible—and, for a time, immensely popular—business proposition. He was the town mayor, and a member of the ruling Liberal Party. His clout is evident in the length of time it took the National Bureau of Investigation to find him after he ducked out of view even before the arrest order was issued. Worse, it turns out he hadn’t even fled the country, or lived as a hermit in some area that time forgot. The arresting team collared him and his wife Priscilla Ann in a pricey neighborhood in Fort Bonifacio in Taguig City. Despite the weeks-long headlines generated by the Aman scam, the well-heeled community that the spouses lived in all these months either had no idea of, or turned a blind eye to, the fugitives it was harboring.

It’s still a long road ahead for the victims of Aman, with many of the perpetrators still on the run. The arrest of Co will—should!—reenergize the case although, things being the way they are in this country, the temptation to be skeptical is keen. The teachers, retirees and cops left holding the proverbial empty bag may not get all their money back, but the criminals behind the scam ought to pay in full—unless there is truly no justice in this world.