Peñaflor may have transferred money to offshore account – source

MANILA, Philippines – Former Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) employee Jose Cecilio “Jay” Peñaflor is believed to have transferred millions of pesos allegedly taken from unwitting stock market investors into offshore accounts but the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the corporate regulator, said it would work with governments abroad to possibly recover the money.

This is one of the possibilities the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is looking at as it seeks to recover an estimated P300 million Peñaflor allegedly took from investors in the course of several months since March 2015 with a promise of investing the money in the stock market and earn for them returns of as much as 50 percent.

Peñaflor is the rogue stock market guru at the center of a multimillion-peso stock market scam who is now facing separate syndicated estafa complaints filed by his victims before the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office.

“There is information that he put the money in an offshore account,” a source has told The STAR.

But the SEC said it is working with the NBI and the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) to recover the money.

In an interview, SEC commissioner Ephyro Amatong said the corporate regulator is looking into Peñaflor’s violation of the Securities Regulation Code (SRC), which is a predicate crime.

“A violation of the SRC is a predicate crime where the AMLC may trace the money and, if there is a finding of probable cause, may freeze the money,” he said.

Last week, more victims of Peñaflor, including his student from Centro Escolar University, filed their affidavits with Quezon City Assistant City Prosecutor Nicasio Rosales.

He is also facing a syndicated estafa complaint by his cousin-in-law Francis Cruz, whose family alone was duped of an estimated P12 million, while another syndicated estafa complaint was filed by a Chinese-Filipino victim before the Department of Justice (DOJ) against Peñaflor and three licensed stock market brokers – his brother Angelo, John Benedict Aguzar and Rafael Sigua.

The Chinese-Filipino victim said she lost P10 million in principal and interest to Peñaflor.

Peñaflor, in his counter-affidavit submitted to the DOJ, admitted taking investments from investors but denied duping them.

He claimed that in soliciting investments, he did not commit false pretense, fraudulent acts and neither did he resort to fraudulent means for the complainant to invest.

“In sum, respondent humbly submits that at best, the instance suit is no more than a collection for sum of money,” Peñaflor said.

But he admitted that he and the complainant agreed on an investment with his company, CAP-M Consultancy Co. and that they already agreed on periodic installment payments, supposedly from January 2016 to May 2016.

Peñaflor has been described as silver tongued, being a charismatic and convincing public speaker and who claims to be an authority in stock market investing.

During his stint at the PSE, Penaflor did market education projects. He left in 2013.