PAGADIAN CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 25, 2013) – Philippine authorities have failed to take into custody the brain behind the P12-billion large-scale swindling who fled Malaysia to evade arrest in Mindanao.
Manuel Amalilio, founder of the Aman Futures, has duped thousands of people in the southern Philippines by promising them 50% interests of all their investments; and escaped to Sabah after the collapse of his company.
Philippine Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said Amalilio was a Filipino who passed himself off to investors as a Malaysian citizen.
Amalilio was arrested in Kota Kinabalu by angry Filipino investors after he failed to pay them millions of pesos in funds.
One of the investors who nabbed Amalilio said the man was actually a Malaysian national whose real name is Mohamad Gamal bin Said, and not a Filipino as authorities claimed.
Amalilio, who was behind the P12-billion Ponzi scheme in southern Philippines, has been taken into custody by Malaysian authorities in Kota Kinabalu in the eastern state of Sabah.
His arrest came after Philippine authorities alerted Malaysia about Amalilio’s escape to Sabah.
De Lima said a team of National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents were sent to fetch Amalilio in Kota Kinabalu and to bring him back to the Philippines to face criminal charges.
But Malaysian authorities prevented them from taking custody of Amalilio, saying the Philippines have no extradition treaty the neighboring state of Sabah. (Mindanao Examiner)
20