The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas seems adamant to pursue efforts to put behind bars individuals involved in the now embattled Legacy Group of financial services companies.

On Friday, the BSP filed before the Justice Department the second syndicated estafa complaint against Celso de los Angeles and top management of the Legacy Group and allied companies for allegedly siphoning P487 million of depositors and government money.

BSP’s first estafa case against de los Angeles and others involved alleged fraudulent transactions amounting to P1 billion. It focused on one of the Legacy-linked rural banks, the Rural Bank of Darbci. The BSP’s case focused on Darbci’s operations in General Santos and Cebu.

This time, BSP’s case centered on another rural bank: First Interstate Bank (FIB), previously called Rural Bank of Kananga, Leyte. FIB, now closed, had several branches in Leyte province.

Both complaints were filed by BSP's counsel Villaraza Cruz Marcelo & Angangco.

Through the affidavits executed by the banks’ officers and witnesses, the BSP is establishing a trend: that de los Angeles and his group had a “criminal intent…to defraud through a series of misappropriationS.” The affidavits said this intent is “apparent from the very beginning.”

The BSP was only able to pin down de los Angeles, whose name did not appear in official documents of the Legacy-linked banks, through the affidavits.

The BSP alleged that de los Angeles “exercised unbridled access and total control over the latter’s operations, particularly in the custody and disposition of funds FIB has generated through its solicitations from the general public.”

The public was allegedly enticed to deposit their funds with FIB through the rural bank’s “double your money in five/three years” scheme.

An officer of FIB testified that because the bank offered “extraordinary exorbitant yields, it was very easy for us to entice and induce depositors.” He added that before the bank’s closure, all banks belonging to the Legacy Group were instructed by de los Angeles to transfer available funds to the account of LCPI and to destroy any evidence that would implicate him (de los Angeles) and his cohorts in the various schemes they perpetrated.

As of December 2008, FIB had only about P1 million in cash.

De los Angeles reportedly misappropriated the money through a “labyrinthine series of fraudulent and fictitious loan transactions.”

Aside from de los Angeles, the other respondents in the second estafa case are Alexis S. Petralba; Namnama D. Pasetes; Carolina G. Hiñola; Roy Hilario; Virgilio A. Odejar; Christine Antenor Cruz-Limpin; Norman Tiongson; Victoria “Binky” Noel; Arnel Sulquiano; Ronaldo Alix; Mike Basangan; and John Does and Jane Does.

If proven guilty, the respondents could be jailed and blacklisted from the industry.

Last week, respondents Carol Hiñola and Namnama Santos, the respective president and chief finance officer of Legacy, faced the local media and showed documents that traced funds from the Legacy group making its way to the bank accounts of allies of several politicians. They asked to be placed under protective custody of the Senate after claiming their lives were under threat.