Jakarta court rejects RP extradition plea for 4 GoldQuest execs

An Indonesian court has ordered the release of the three Filipino businessmen and their Malaysian partner behind the GoldQuest networking scheme after it turned down a Philippine government’s request for their extradition. South Jakarta’s district court said in a July 31 decision that the crime of syndicated estafa for which the four businessmen are sought to be extradited does not exist in Indonesian statute books. The case stemmed from the complaints of Enrico Noel Uy and Patrick Zuniga who claimed that the accused solicited from each of them the amount of $50,625.00 in 1998 on the promise that they would be issued shares of a company to be incorporated and eventually called GoldQuest International Ltd. (GQI) and that after six months, their investment in GQI would earn $10,000 per month. Charged were Malaysian businessman Vijayeswaran Vijayaratnam and his Filipino partners Tagumpay Pablo Perez Kintanar, Joseph Luis Eleuterio Tomacruz Bismark and Donna Marie Glenn Imson before the Quezon City regional trial court on March 20, 2006 for syndicated estafa, a non-bailable offense. The fifth suspect identified as Kurt Rooco Rinck, a German national is still at large but was already placed on the Interpol Red Notice list. Uy and Zuñiga claimed that they were shareholders of a BVI incorporated company called GoldQuest International Ltd. The two “invested" a little over US$50,000 each to the enterprise in 1998 and have supposedly admitted to having received in return US$760, 200.89 in dividends, allowances and monetary benefits for about seven years, aside from the full payment for the loan with interest. The four accused are executives of the foreign multinational company. They were placed under police custody in Jakarta since their arrest in May on the basis of the syndicated estafa charges pending in the Philippines. "The [Philippine government's] request for extradition of the respondents was legally unreasonable and must be turned down," the court ruled and consequently ordered the release of the four executives from detention. The tribunal explained that syndicated estafa is virtually unknown in Indonesian jurisprudence. Since the RP-Indonesia extradition agreement adheres to the principle of "Dual Criminality," the court said Indonesia and the Philippines must both consider that the action is a crime before any extradition can be granted. "The accusations against the four executives constitute a civil matter as it developed from a lending and borrowing agreement," the court said. It explained that a civil case does not qualify for any extradition request, as extradition agreements in general, and between Indonesia and the Philippines in particular, are valid only for crimes committed. Under existing laws in the Philippines, syndicated estafa is supposed to be perpetrated by at least five individuals; otherwise it is reduced to a simple estafa, a bailable offense. "I'm happy that we were vindicated by the Indonesian court but at the same time disappointed it took an impartial foreign tribunal to do so. Now I look forward to returning to the Philippines to clear my name once and for all. I have not been able to come home to pay my final respects to my father since he passed away in May this year. We are thankful to the Indonesian judicial authorities for their fairness and sense of justice. We are now a step closer to achieving justice," Kintanar said upon learning of the court decision. In an earlier petition to the Supreme Court, the four accused dismissed the case as a “mere corporate dispute over company profits." They wanted the Supreme Court to stop QCRTC Branch 219 Presiding Judge Bayani Vargas from hearing the case. They specifically asked the Supreme Court to reverse and set aside the January 24, 2007 decision and July 3, 2007 resolution of the Court of Appeals dismissing the civil action for certiorari and prohibition they earlier filed. - GMANews.TV