CASE: THE ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING CASE OF ANNABELLA C.

YLAGAN
Date: April 2018
FACTS
• A liaison officer and secretary to the president of a chemical trader-distributor was convicted for fifty-
five (55) counts of money laundering based on investigative findings of the Anti-Money Laundering
Council (AMLC).
• In a fifty-six (56)-page Decision promulgated on 18 April 2018, Presiding Judge Caridad M. Walse-
Lutero of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Quezon City, found Annabella C. Ylagan guilty beyond
reasonable doubt for fifty-five (55) counts of money laundering, and sentenced her to seven (7) years’
imprisonment for each count.
• The AMLC, the country’s financial intelligence unit (FIU) and enforcer of the Anti-Money Laundering
Act of 2001, as amended (AMLA), proved that Ylagan transferred funds from her employer’s accounts
in three (3) banks to a bank account she opened under fictitious bank accounts under the name “Lourdes
R. Liu” and a company purportedly created by Ylagan.
• The DOJ said that the accused, identified as Anabella Ylagan, has been found guilty by the Quezon
City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 223 guilty of 55 counts of violating Section 4(a) of Republic
Act No. 9160, the Anti-Money Laundering Law.
• Meanwhile, the DOJ lauded the efforts of its National Prosecution Service (NPS) for securing the
conviction of Ylagan, a former bank liaison officer of the Sytengco Enterprises Corporation (SEC).
• Assistant State Prosecutors Gilmarie Fe Pacamarra and Ethel Rea Suril had filed in court a total of
150 counts of violating RA 9160 against the accused based on the complaint filed by the Anti-Money
Laundering Council (AMLC).

ISSUES/ PROBLEMS
• Ylagan’s modus operandi that amassed P12 million over a four-year period involved routing of
forged letters of authority, instructing banks to transfer funds from her employer’s accounts to her
own fictitious accounts.
• Ylagan’s illicit scheme was exposed when an account officer of bank where her company maintained
accounts phoned the company to verify a fund transfer in favor of one of her companies. Because Ylagan
was not at the office at the time, one of her colleagues took the call.
• Eventually, it was discovered that the company never approved the transfers: there were no documents
to back up the transfers. The company president was alerted, and investigations into Ylagan’s transactions
were conducted.

HELD (RESULT)

• Ylagan admitted in writing to executing the fund transfers and opening fictitious accounts. Hence, the
company promptly charged Ylagan for two separate crimes: Qualified Theft, and Qualified Theft through
Falsification of Private Documents.
• While the courts convicted Ylagan guilty as charged. Moreover, she was also ordered to pay the company
Php9,852,722.55, representing actual damages that the company suffered based on the evidence it
offered.
• The Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) convicted a company president’s secretary of 55 counts
of money laundering, and sentenced her to 7 years of imprisonment for each count, or a total of 385
years.
• The decision was issued on April 18 and announced to media by the Anti-Money Laundering
Council (AMLC) on Monday, May 28.

The AMLC is very committed to prosecuting money laundering as these convictions show. Crime does not pay,
and should never be made to pay. Ylagan made a choice: amass wealth and use the banks to hide her wealth.
Tarnishing the integrity of the financial system has a cost: Ylagan paid for it very dearly.” Ylagan is now
serving her sentence at the Correctional Institute for Women.
 CASE: CELSO DELOS ANGELES AND HIS LEGACY INSURANCE AND PENSION SCAM
FACTS
• Legacy Group of Companies owner Celso G. Delos Angeles, Jr. and twelve (12) officers who drained
• investors money in the estimated amount of Php 830 million pesos. he was facing numerous cases of
syndicated estafa for allegedly masterminding the legacy insurance and pension scam.
• De los Angeles was facing multiple syndicated estafa charges filed by the Philippine Deposit Insurance
Corporation (PDIC) with the Department of Justice (DOJ) for the collapse of 13 Legacy-member rural
banks. Legacy Group's collapse affected at least 130,000 bank depositors in the Central Visayas alone.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas accused De los Angeles being the brains behind a "swindling
syndicate" that employed exorbitant investment schemes to amass depositors’ money and then later
siphoned off a total of P30 billion public and government funds to corporations he controlled. He
allegedly used some of the money for his election campaign. All Legacy banks had an estimated total
deposit liability of P24 billion when they collapsed. De los Angeles, who was detained at the Ormoc
provincial jail before he became ill, was also charged with "creation of fictitious loans" before the DOJ.
The PDIC -- the statutory receiver of Legacy rural banks shut down in 2008 -- filed the criminal case
after it gathered evidence on almost P40 million-worth of fictitious loans. The loans were allegedly
made by borrowers, some of them also fictitious, with San Pablo City Development Bank (SPCDB), a
Laguna-based rural bank under the Legacy Group. PDIC is paying a total of P14 billion in insured
deposits in the Legacy banks. De los Angeles was not arraigned on many of the lawsuits he faced
because of his failing health.

ISSUES/ PROBLEMS

• The Securities and Exchange Commission has been flagrantly lax and extremely negligent in performing
its mandate of protecting the public against companies that solicit funds in trust, such as banks and pre-
need corporations. The most blatant of these cases is that of the Legacy Group that has bilked hundreds
of depositors and subscribers in what appears to be a Ponzi or double-your-money scam.
• It has become clear from the Senate hearings that one of the reasons the SEC has been blatantly
irresponsible and negligent in supervising these corporations is that some of their officers have protectors
or patrons (padrinos) in the SEC. Yesterday Malacanang has instructed SEC Commissioner Jesus
Martinez to go on leave to allow the administrative and criminal investigation against him to proceed
unimpeded.
• As SEC commissioner, Martinez was assigned to oversee or supervise the pre-need industries to see to it
that they comply strictly with the SEC law and regulations protecting their plan holders or subscribers.
But it appears, according to witnesses, that he accepted a house and lot and some cash from Celso de los
Angeles, the head of the Legacy Group. Of course this was denied, but we cannot blame the public that
this was the reason that for a long time the Legacy Group was allowed to continue operating even though
it had been facing difficulties in its cash flow in servicing its clients

HELD (RESULT)

• De los Angeles left behind a P30-billion financial mess and a string of unsettled lawsuits related to the
Legacy Group.
• Overseas Filipino workers, military and police personnel, and even the government were among those
caught in the Legacy mess.
• De los Angeles, an Albay town mayor, was touted as the local version of American multibillion-dollar
swindler, Bernard Madoff. The disgraced Wall Street financier, who faced 11 criminal counts, was
sentenced to 150 years in prison.
• De los Angeles was facing multiple syndicated estafa charges filed by the Philippine Deposit Insurance
Corporation (PDIC) with the Department of Justice (DOJ) for the collapse of 13 Legacy-member rural
banks
CASE: ENRON ACCOUNTING SCANDAL

FACTS