3 more complaints filed vs Aman Futures, including 3rd vs Pagadian mayor

Three more complaints, involving a total of almost P60 million in investments, were filed Tuesday by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) before the Department of Justice against people allegedly involved in the P12-billion Aman Futures Group Philippines Inc investment scam.

 

One of the three complaints named Pagadian Mayor Samuel Co as a respondent and accused him of offering the complainant an amicable settlement. This becomes the third complaint to be filed against the mayor in two weeks.

 

In the latest complaint against the mayor, complainant Zaalica Adiong said she invested P3.2 million in Aman Futures. She said she handed over the money to Pagadian City Treasurer Flornina Gerona, who was supposedly acting on Co's behalf.

 

She said receipts for her investment were issued by Co's employee Haide Sepada.

"When Aman collapsed, Mayor Samuel S. Co tried to amicably settle [with] the complainant which even made the claim of the complainant stronger that Mayor Co was indeed involved in the operation of Aman," said NBI director Nonnatus Caesar Rojas in his recommendation. 

 

Aman Futures is accused of defrauding investors through the "Ponzi Scheme," in which the firm misrepresents itself as a company engaged in futures trading and lured investors by offering between 20 to 80 percent interest within eight to 20 days.

 

The first two complaints against Co was filed with the DOJ respectively on Wednesday and Thursday last week.

 

Apart from Co, Gerona and Sepada, other named respondents in the first of the three new complaints were Aman Futures incorporators Manuel Amalilio, Fernando Luna, Leilan Lim Gan, Eduard Lim, Wilanie Fuentes, Naezelle Rodriguez, and Luriz Lopez.

 

The second of the three new complaints, meanwhile, involved 10 complainants and investments totalling to 5,197,663.47.

 

The NBI discovered that Aman Futures began operation during the last week of February this year and used the name Aman Futures Trading, and identified itself as a client of Malaysia-based future trading company Okachi (Malaysia) SDN.BHD.

 

In June, Aman Futures registered with the Securties and Exchange Commission, but was not authorized to solicit investment from the public, based on its articles of incorporation.

 

The third complaint involved five complainants and an investment of P49,189,112.

 

 

Meanwhile, a report on GMA News TV's News To Go said the NBI has found out that Co let investors of Aman Futures Group Philippines Inc. sign a waiver that protects him from any suits from the investors should the controversial firm crumble.

 

Local NBI authorities were able to secure copies of the waiver that the embattled mayor distributed to investors of the Aman Futures, the report added.

 

Stipulated in the waiver was a clause saying that an investor would be entitled to get three percent of his or her original investment in case Aman Futures folds up, so long as he or she would not file a complaint against the mayor. — Mark Merueñas/RSJ, GMA News