PDIC files biggest case vs Legacy's De Los Angeles

The Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) has filed before the Justice Department its 23rd and biggest complaint against discredited businessman Celso de los Angeles, the principal suspect in the Legacy insurance and pension scam. De los Angeles and some officers of Legacy-affiliated banks were charged with syndicated estafa involving P5.37 billion of deposits, the PDIC said in a statement Monday. De los Angeles and 21 officers and employees of Dynamic Bank supposedly created fictitious loans, including motorcycle loans, and remitted the proceeds to accounts under Legacy Motors Inc. and OneCard Co., both allegedly owned by De los Angeles, the deposits insurer noted. The mishandling of depositors’ money ended only when the PDIC placed all Legacy-affiliated units under receivership in December 2008, according to PDIC. Auditors of PDIC and audit firm Punongbayan &Araullo (P&A) established that De los Angeles and Dynamic Bank officers withdrew a total of P5.37 billion from the savings accounts, the PDIC said. Charged with De Los Angeles were Germiniano Noche Jr., Ampere Elman, Flora Bulasag, Danmilo Consul, Teofila Garcia, Bartolome Quintana, Emilio Quintana, Vicente Quintana Analea Galban, Cleofas Ordonia, Brenda Sombillio, Leny Yanoria, Jocelyn Arroyo, Rafael Cueto, Grace Delgado, Emylyn Geli, Carmela Illenberger, Sherwin Masusi, Arnel Ligan, Rizalina Alvaez, and Geraldine Palo. Some P14 billion worth of deposits in 48 banks across the country were allegedly scammed by De los Angeles and his cohorts before the government stepped in and put a stop to the scheme in 2008. The PDIC earlier filed three other cases — one for syndicated estafa and two for large scale estafa — against De los Angeles and Legacy officers and employees before the Justice Department. The insurer said more cases are being prepared against Legacy officials as the forensic audit of P&A comes to a close. The PDIC had announced it had settled more than half of the almost P14 billion claims from depositors of the 13 affiliated banks of the Legacy Group. It said that it paid 74,779 claims equivalent to P7.8 billion or 56 percent of the total claims that cover 121,354 accounts amounting to P13.83 billion. Claims approved by the PDIC as of June 18 amounted to P8.9 billion covering 80,448 depositors, while the remaining P4.93 billion involving 40,866 deposit accounts of Legacy banks were still being verified. —JE/VS, GMANews.TV