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Good day to all the administrators and attorneys of this site. I am very grateful for coming across this legal forum and I hope you can also shed light on my concern the way this forum has helped so many others with their predicament.
My story is quite long so please bear with me.
It has come to my knowledge that a group of people is filing an estafa case against me and my live-in partner.
I have a friend and let's call him Gary. Gary and I are part of two business ventures:
1. We both joined an online network marketing biz based in Europe which has also recently opened a branch here in the Philippines with SEC registration and all. We both invested here in 2015 in the hopes of getting big returns for the money we invested which we did. It involves marketing the gold products to the world and once the cycle is completed, we receive rewards from the company in the form of either gold bullion or cash. Gary did receive his first reward when he completed the first cycle. The thing is, negative media /news about the company sometime 2015-2016 has caused us difficulty in marketing and recruiting new gold buyers so the remaining accounts we have and the accounts of those we have marketed to were not able to complete the cycle and so did not receive rewards from the company. But the accounts are still active and the moment we can all market and recruit again, our accounts can move again and get rewarded.
Now Gary and the people he has recruited and marketed to who have opened accounts with the gold company are now accusing me of estafa. They believe that I got their money because I am not refunding their money to them. The reason that they believe this is because in my hopes to help speed up the process of the activation of their accounts, me and my live-in partner administered the activation of their accounts. Gary’s recruits (who I don’t know personally and didn’t recruit myself) sent their money to our bank account even if we have informed our group that they can do this themselves if they want to. But because they were lazy and don’t want to be hassled by this, they sent the money to us and we were the one who sent this money to the company in exchange for activating their accounts with the gold company. The invoice, receipt, username and password were all sent to them via FB and email. Every step of the process was also discussed in our group Facebook page for transparency purposes. Those money that were not registered were refunded back to the members. But those that were already activated, meaning, the money is no longer with us but already with the gold company, we cannot refund anymore. Even me and my partner have about P1million invested to the company in the hopes that through our hard work in marketing, it can generate P5M income. But like them, we cannot anymore refund it and we should continue with our marketing efforts if we want to get rewarded five times.
But because they thought that this was an easy money kind of thing such that they’ll just give their money and boom they’ll get rewarded (maybe Gary did not teach them the terms and conditions of the company for doing this kind of business), they now think that I scammed them even if I did not.
This is now the case that they are filing with NBI against me according to my source.
Now my question about this is, what is step by step process of filing with NBI? What will happen next? What do I do as I wait for the inevitable? Will I get a demand letter? Do I need to find a lawyer now to help me make my counter-affidavit? If I show NBI all the evidences I have to prove that their money is not with me but with the gold company in exchange for the activation of their accounts, will the case be dismissed?
2. I mentioned that I have 2 business ventures with Gary. The second one is I invested a big amount of money in his own business in April 2016. We have a typewritten and signed agreement which states that I gave him P250K and that this money will earn 10% every three weeks. It did happen at first, then the interest payment got delayed until the last month of the contract when he didn’t pay me anymore and he’s no longer answering my text and Fb messages. That was Dec. 2016. I was forced to bring up the case to the Lupon of our barangay where we met 2-3 times. Finally he agreed to pay me back my 250K on March 31, 2017. In the meantime, as I am waiting for March 31, he is building this case against me in NBI as I mentioned in #1 maybe because he doesn’t want to really pay me my P250K.
Now my question is, what cases can I file against him? I have a screenshot of his private Fb message with a common friend saying bad things against me so he can persuade my friend to join them in their NBI case against me. This friend of mine is also a gold account holder but unlike Gary, this friend of mine understands the terms and conditions and why we are not getting rewarded by the company. Anyway, when Gary and I were at the Lupon, he was also saying bad things about me towards the members of the Lupon while I was just being quiet and respectful the whole time. Kumbaga, kung sino pa kung may sala, she pa kung maboka at malakas ang loob mang-akusa.
Generally, what are the things that I should do right now? What can I expect next if they indeed filed a case against me at NBI? Gary has a propensity for lying, making up stories and really sounding kapani-paniwala because he is a sales person. This is how he was able to persuade people to join in the gold business and now that these people did not get rewarded, he is putting all the blame on me and persuading them to join him in filing this case even if I was transparent to them the whole time. I think he is using this situation to find reason not to pay me the P250K I invested in his own business.
Your free legal advice will be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much for your time. More power and God bless!
My story is quite long so please bear with me.
It has come to my knowledge that a group of people is filing an estafa case against me and my live-in partner.
I have a friend and let's call him Gary. Gary and I are part of two business ventures:
1. We both joined an online network marketing biz based in Europe which has also recently opened a branch here in the Philippines with SEC registration and all. We both invested here in 2015 in the hopes of getting big returns for the money we invested which we did. It involves marketing the gold products to the world and once the cycle is completed, we receive rewards from the company in the form of either gold bullion or cash. Gary did receive his first reward when he completed the first cycle. The thing is, negative media /news about the company sometime 2015-2016 has caused us difficulty in marketing and recruiting new gold buyers so the remaining accounts we have and the accounts of those we have marketed to were not able to complete the cycle and so did not receive rewards from the company. But the accounts are still active and the moment we can all market and recruit again, our accounts can move again and get rewarded.
Now Gary and the people he has recruited and marketed to who have opened accounts with the gold company are now accusing me of estafa. They believe that I got their money because I am not refunding their money to them. The reason that they believe this is because in my hopes to help speed up the process of the activation of their accounts, me and my live-in partner administered the activation of their accounts. Gary’s recruits (who I don’t know personally and didn’t recruit myself) sent their money to our bank account even if we have informed our group that they can do this themselves if they want to. But because they were lazy and don’t want to be hassled by this, they sent the money to us and we were the one who sent this money to the company in exchange for activating their accounts with the gold company. The invoice, receipt, username and password were all sent to them via FB and email. Every step of the process was also discussed in our group Facebook page for transparency purposes. Those money that were not registered were refunded back to the members. But those that were already activated, meaning, the money is no longer with us but already with the gold company, we cannot refund anymore. Even me and my partner have about P1million invested to the company in the hopes that through our hard work in marketing, it can generate P5M income. But like them, we cannot anymore refund it and we should continue with our marketing efforts if we want to get rewarded five times.
But because they thought that this was an easy money kind of thing such that they’ll just give their money and boom they’ll get rewarded (maybe Gary did not teach them the terms and conditions of the company for doing this kind of business), they now think that I scammed them even if I did not.
This is now the case that they are filing with NBI against me according to my source.
Now my question about this is, what is step by step process of filing with NBI? What will happen next? What do I do as I wait for the inevitable? Will I get a demand letter? Do I need to find a lawyer now to help me make my counter-affidavit? If I show NBI all the evidences I have to prove that their money is not with me but with the gold company in exchange for the activation of their accounts, will the case be dismissed?
2. I mentioned that I have 2 business ventures with Gary. The second one is I invested a big amount of money in his own business in April 2016. We have a typewritten and signed agreement which states that I gave him P250K and that this money will earn 10% every three weeks. It did happen at first, then the interest payment got delayed until the last month of the contract when he didn’t pay me anymore and he’s no longer answering my text and Fb messages. That was Dec. 2016. I was forced to bring up the case to the Lupon of our barangay where we met 2-3 times. Finally he agreed to pay me back my 250K on March 31, 2017. In the meantime, as I am waiting for March 31, he is building this case against me in NBI as I mentioned in #1 maybe because he doesn’t want to really pay me my P250K.
Now my question is, what cases can I file against him? I have a screenshot of his private Fb message with a common friend saying bad things against me so he can persuade my friend to join them in their NBI case against me. This friend of mine is also a gold account holder but unlike Gary, this friend of mine understands the terms and conditions and why we are not getting rewarded by the company. Anyway, when Gary and I were at the Lupon, he was also saying bad things about me towards the members of the Lupon while I was just being quiet and respectful the whole time. Kumbaga, kung sino pa kung may sala, she pa kung maboka at malakas ang loob mang-akusa.
Generally, what are the things that I should do right now? What can I expect next if they indeed filed a case against me at NBI? Gary has a propensity for lying, making up stories and really sounding kapani-paniwala because he is a sales person. This is how he was able to persuade people to join in the gold business and now that these people did not get rewarded, he is putting all the blame on me and persuading them to join him in filing this case even if I was transparent to them the whole time. I think he is using this situation to find reason not to pay me the P250K I invested in his own business.
Your free legal advice will be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much for your time. More power and God bless!
