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Cops prepare estafa case vs couple from Canada


The police is preparing to charge Janice Florence del Rosario and her husband Kaye Gravador in court with syndicated estafa, a non-bailable offense that carries a life sentence. On their third day of detention at the Quezon City Police District’s Station 6 precinct, 25 of their many victims have come forward to file criminal complaints against the couple who were deported from Canada last Sunday. Superintendent Constante Agpaoa, officer in charge of the police station, told GMANews.TV that the much heavier case of syndicated estafa instead of the bailable estafa would be filed in court later this week or early next week. Agpaoa has admitted having been duped in 2003 by the couple in an investment scheme known as “pyramiding" that turned out to be a scam. The couple is believed to have victimized some 200 police and military officers, including a general and another colonel. The del Rosarios have hired the services of former senator Rene Saguisag to represent them in their legal battle. Janice, 44, and Kaye, 33, left the Philippines in March 2003 with millions of pesos in investments of people they befriended. Some of their victims invested their lifetime savings and proceeds of real properties. Kaye was a jail officer. They were promised 10 percent returns in just 10 days, and were given post-dated checks to represent the “interests" on their investments. Most of the checks bounced. They went to Toronto, Canada where they applied for a refugee status, claiming they were victims of intimidation in the Philippines by corrupt police officers, and that one of their sons was a victim of kidnapping for ransom here. In Canada, the Toronto Star reported that the couple tricked their friends who entrusted at least C$2 million of their lifetime savings in “investments" a buying and selling of high-end jewelry that promised them 10 percent returns in just 10 days. The Canadian police refused to entertain complaints against the couple, saying their business dealings were “civil matters." The couple, who went in hiding since the day before they were to show up before the Canadian immigration authorities for deportation on November 16, 2006, was nonetheless deported over the weekend. Janice was arrested in a basement apartment in Bathurst Street in Toronto on January 15. Her husband turned himself in three days later. Three duffel bags of jewelry were seized from Janice, but a court in Toronto had ordered it frozen until determination of rightful ownership. Way back in 2003, Agpaoa said Janice ran away with around P7.5 million personal loans that he, his relatives and friends extender to her. The police officer said he met Janice in 2001 through a friend of his wife, also a police officer. Between 2001 and 2003, Agpaoa said the post-dated checks Janice issued her representing interest on his “investments" were good. “Walang problema noon. Dalawang taon maganda ang bigay hanggang umalis nga sila noong 2003," he told GMANews.TV. It was only after they disappeared that their friends learned the couple had duped them into what she claimed as a buy-and-sell of high-end jewelry. Agpaoa declined to give full details of his business dealings with Janice. He claimed to have provided the Canadian immigration office pertinent information on the strings of estafa cases awaiting them in the Philippines so they could be repatriated to the Philippines. Agpaoa went to Canada in 2005 and in 2006 to locate the del Rosarios but he went home empty handed. Some of the victims in Toronto , mostly Filipinos or foreigners married to Filipino women, have called Janice “Mother Theresa without a conscience" because she portrayed herself as a religious and generous woman. The del Rosario couple lived a luxurious life in Canada . Kaye worked as a restaurant waiter in a hotel but drove a Mercedes Benz. Janice drove a BMW X-5 and wore expensive clothes and jewelry. - GMANews.TV

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