The lawyer of controversial Legacy Group owner, Celso de los Angeles, told Cebu-based clients of the bankrupt financial services firm that his client is denying that a bank fraud was committed.

Lawyer Inocencio De La Cerna said De los Angeles submitted at the Department of Justice on Wednesday a counter-affidavit to the case filed by seven planholders, led by Francisco Obsenares, who claimed that De los Angeles defrauded them through a "Ponzi scheme."

De La Cerna said De los Angeles affidavit explained that wrong business decisions decision caused Legacy's bankruptcy, not efforts to conspire to defraud anybody.

De los Angeles reportedly said that the planholders' complaint "failed to show that respondents’ acts stated therein are carried out by five or more persons 'formed with the intention of carrying out the unlawful or illegal act, transaction, enterprise or scheme',” De los Angeles said.

The businessman-turned-politician also said it was his former top-level executives, Carolina Hinola and Namnama Pasetes who called the shots and wielded the broades authority in the Legacy companies' daily operations. Respectively, the two were president and chief executive officer, and the chief financial officer of Legacy Consolidated Plans, one of the firms under the Legacy umbrella.

The former Legacy executives have turned their back on De los Angeles and have testified before the Senate, where they presented documents that could potentially pin De los Angeles who now face at least 8 syndicated estafa cases from depositors, investors, pre-need investors, and from government regulators such as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp (PDIC). The Securities and Exchange Commision has also filed a criminal case against him at the justice department.

Hinola and Pasetes are included in the estafa suits, and are hoping to be considered as state witnesses to evade the non-bailable criminal offense.

In his media interviews, De los Angeles said he was "totally dependent on [Hinola and Pasetes]" who controlled the finances of the entire group. He also stressed that the former executives "were signatories to all bank accounts of LCPI into which fund transfers would be deposited into.”

The two earlier claimed that funds of the Legacy pre-need firm were deposited in De los Angeles' personal bank accounts, and some were used to fund campaign expenses when the Legacy owner ran for and won as mayor of Sto. Domingo, a town in Albay province.

Meantime, in his motion to the Makati Regional Trial, where six plan holders and senator Mar Roxas filed their own estafa case against De los Angeles and other Legacy officials, Delos Angeles prayed for the recall of the subpoena issued against him. He noted that the complainants have to pay in full the prescribed legal fees of at least P1,000 per complainant.

Some of the plan holders have expressed that they are finding it difficult to raise the funds for the cases' filing fee. Roxas told them that his office will shoulder the acceptance and professional fees of lawyers but will let the victims pay their docket fees.

Roxas told the Legacy clients that he already wrote the justice department to request waiver on the docket fees. He said he has not received a respond from the agency.

De los Angeles then decided to file an urgent motion to compel payment of correct filing fees and to suspend proceedings until its full payment.

His statement also said that “There is already an insolvency proceeding in the Regional Trial Court of Makati. In due time, the court will hear the claims and distribute the remaining assets of Legacy group.”

Case vs BSP, PDIC

De La Cerna said that they are already planning to file a complaint against BSP and PDIC at the Ombudsman since he said the two offices are being selective in filing charges.

De La Cerna said that the testimonies used to accuse his clients come from officials of bank corporations who admitted in their testimonies that they committed bank fraud. He said that their mere admittance should have been enough that they too should be charged.

Centralized

In a related news, the justice department has issued a new order addressed to all regional state prosecutors, provincial and city prosecutors. It said all cases to be filed against Delos Angeles should all be filed in Manila. All cases would be centralized and forwarded to the Secretariat of the Special Panel for the assignment and distribution to panel members. The cases already filed before February 13, 2009 would have to be sent to Manila for proper disposition.

Exempted on the order are those cases filed in Cagayan De Oro City. A memorandum from the justice department said that since the complainants from Cagayan De Oro come from distant locations, the prosecutors in Cagayan were directed to conduct the preliminary investigation of all the cases of Legacy. - Carine M. Asutilla, ABS-CBN News Central Visayas