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PDIC raps Legacy's De Los Angeles for fictitious loans


The Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) has filed before the Department of Justice (DOJ) a complaint against businessman Celso de los Angeles Jr. for supposedly creating fictitious loans in a Laguna rural bank. De los Angeles, who is detained at an Ormoc City jail in Leyte province, is the principal suspect in the Legacy insurance and pension scam. Some P14 billion worth of deposits in 48 banks across the country were allegedly scammed by De los Angeles and his companies' officials. The government stepped in and put a stop to the scheme in 2008. In its complaint-affidavit filed on Tuesday, PDIC investigators Manuel Tan and Ariston Aganon alleged that De los Angeles and a certain Reynaldo Manit created fictitious loans in the San Pablo City Development Bank (SPCDB). PDIC is the statutory receiver of the now-closed SPCDB, one of the Legacy banks under the collapsed Legacy Group of Companies. The creation of fictitious loans is prohibited by Republic Act No. 3591 or the PDIC charter. Fake loans The PDIC alleged that De los Angeles instructed the release of P37.6-million fake loans from small and medium enterprises (SME) from January 4 to October 8 in 2008. The supposed fake loans were later abolished. However, on December 4 of that year, fictitious loans amounting to P38.1 million were created in the name of Glenn Godoy, a mechanic, and Lenard Ponez, whose existence cannot be established. "On December 4, 2008, SPCDB official receipts totaling to P38.1 million were used to make it appear that the eight fictitious borrowers paid their respective outstanding balances, when in truth, no such payments were received by said bank," said the complaint-affidavit. "On the same day, upon the instructions of [De los Angeles], new fictitious SME loans with net proceedings aggregating P38.1million in the names of Glenn Godoy and Lenard Ponez were created as a cover-up for the purported payments of the SME loans," it added. PDIC took over SPCDB on December 17, 2008. It conducted the investigation with the help of an "expert forensic accounting team" from Punongbayan and Araullo, a high-profile auditing firm. PDIC, as statutory receiver, is mandated to control, manage, and administer the affairs of the San Pablo Bank. The PDIC is also tasked to gather, preserve, and administer its assets and liabilities for the benefit of the depositors and creditors of the said bank. In September last year, PDIC filed its 23rd and biggest complaint against De los Angeles — a syndicated estafa complaint involving P5.37-billion bank deposits. De los Angeles and several officials of his group of companies are also facing plunder cases and a string of syndicated estafa cases filed by pre-need plan holders and depositors of the Legacy group. – VVP, GMANews.TV

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