Sons of ex-AFP comptroller arrested over cash smuggling

MANILA, Philippines - US authorities on Wednesday arrested two sons of former Armed Forces comptroller retired Gen. Carlos Garcia following an indictment by a federal grand jury in San Francisco. In a press statement, the US Department of Justice said the indictment charged Juan Paulo Depakakibo Garcia and Ian Carl Depakakibo Garcia with one count of conspiracy to commit bulk cash smuggling and one count of bulk cash smuggling. The grand jury also charged Juan Paulo with one count of failing to file a report on the import of monetary instruments and one count of making a false statement to a government agency. He was arrested in Pontiac while Ian Carl was arrested in Las Vegas. Both will be held in San Francisco to answer the charges, the statement said. The indictment was issued last December, the statement added. The case stemmed from the failure of the Garcia brothers to declare some $100,000 they were carrying when they arrived in the US from Manila in 2004. The brothers as well as their parents were facing plunder charges in the Philippines for allegedly amassing P303.27 million of ill-gotten wealth. The siblings' father was recently found guilty of perjury by the Sandiganbayan for misdeclaration of his statement of assets and liabilities in 2000. The elder Garcia belongs to the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) Class of 1971. In December 2005, Gen. Garcia was convicted by a general court martial for having undeclared wealth. The court martial also dismissed him from the military and sentenced him to two years of hard labor. Penalty The maximum statutory penalty for each of the four counts in the indictment – conspiracy to commit bulk cash smuggling, bulk cash smuggling, failure to report the importation of monetary instruments, and false statements to a government agency – is five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The penalty for failure to declare the importation of monetary instruments increases to 10 years in prison if a defendant is convicted of this charge in addition to one of the other three charges in the indictment. Any sentence following conviction would be imposed by the court after consideration of the US Sentencing Guidelines and the federal statute governing the imposition of a sentence. An indictment contains only allegations against an individual and, as with all defendants, the Garcias must be presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the US Customs and Border Protection, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, and the Department of Defense Defense Criminal Investigative Service. - GMANews.TV