URGENT ATTENTION NEEDED: POSSIBLE LARGE SCALE ESTAFA CASE

Hello po,

I hope someone can help me with this case-
Last march kasi I invested on a lending business that that provided me with monthly interest. She's issuing a PDC for the monthly interest and the principal investment. Naging ok naman for 6 months then nadagdagan ng nadagdagan yung investment ko hanggang maging 250K. Come October, nagkaroon "daw" ng problem with BIR kaya stop muna yung lending business and the owner promised to return the principal investment with the premise that no interest will be passed on to the investor. She'll be issuing new set of checks "daw". However, ilang months nang missing in action yung owner ng business. Andami nadin nagfloat na nag invest din sakanya, nasa more than 2M na ung total. What we have currenty are the notarized contracts and the bounced checks (stamped with "bank closed"). As I type this, 5 na kme na naghahanap sakanya. Here are my questions:

1. Where should we file a complaint? The contracts are notarized in Manila but the transaction happened in Laguna
2. What possible cases can we file?
3. Can we request a hold departure order?
4. She is lending pala the money with 20% interest based on deminishing principal- is this illegal? We, as investors, are we liable in case the business perse is illegal?

deecee:

I would suggest that you lodge a complaint with the NBI, Anti-Fraud Division for syndicated estafa.

Hold departure order could be filed when the case is filed in court as an additional remedy. May I suggest too, that you bring the other complainants and also if you have documents at your disposal bring them with you.

Your liability depends on your personal knowledge at the time you made the investment about the business operation of that lending company, and with the knowledge you still participated and or associated yourself with the transactions of the company.

The contract, I suppose would be material for the NBI's determination as to whether or not a criminal or civil case can be pursued.

Thank you.

Atty Karl Rove