PDIC files fraud raps vs. Legacy Group owner

MANILA, Philippines – Embattled Legacy Group owner Celso de los Angeles Jr. is facing yet another legal battle as the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) filed on Wednesday estafa charges against him. Two other government regulatory bodies, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) have already lodged cases against De los Angeles and other officials of Legacy group. In its complaint filed before the Justice Department, the PDIC said De los Angeles and 20 other Legacy officials orchestrated fraudulent schemes to transfer depositors’ money from the now-collapsed Rural Bank of Carmen to "fraudulent, anomalous, and irregular transactions." The Rural Bank of Carmen, a firm under the troubled Legacy Group, is now under the receivership of the PDIC. The PDIC said that De los Angeles created 39 fictitious loan accounts amounting to some P16.8 million and that he made it appear that borrowers received the money. But the PDIC claimed that it was De los Angeles’ son, Martin Nicolo, and Legacy’s Pilipino Rural Bank and other Legacy-affiliated corporations that received the money. PDIC’s case will join the four cases filed earlier by the BSP and the case filed by SEC against De los Angeles and other Legacy officials for syndicated estafa and fraud, among others. A DOJ investigating panel chaired by senior state prosecutor Emmanuel Velasco is looking into the charges lodged against the respondents. Earlier during the day, Velasco vowed that there would be "no sacred cows" in the conduct of its inquiry. Velasco’s fact-finding body probing the charges against De los Angeles and other Legacy officials is different from the investigating panel created Wednesday by the DOJ to look into the supposed anomalous link between De los Angeles and SEC Commissioner Jesus Martinez. - Carlo Lorenzo and Sophia M. Dedace, GMANews.TV