THE Medina family reportedly owns the Medina College in Ozamis City and two other schools in Pagadian City and Misamis Occidental.
A police official, who requested anonymity, said Medina was an investor in the P12-billion Aman Futures scam that has duped at least 15,000 people mostly in Mindanao and the Visayas.
News reports quoted Pagadian City Mayor Samuel Co as saying that an Ozamiz-based businessman by the name of Dr. Rico Medina had confronted Manuel K. Amalilio, the 32-year-old founder of the Aman Futures Group Phils. Inc., whom Medina had seen in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah late last year.
“Dr. Rico Medina called me up immediately after his confrontation with Amalilio, saying that his group was outnumbered by Amalilio’s security escorts,” an Inquirer report quoted Co as saying in November last year.
Early this year, Amalilio, was caught in Malaysia after pleading guilty to charges of holding false travel documents. He was supposed to be deported to Manila on January 25 however, the Malaysian authorities stopped his deportation and was sentenced to two-year imprisonment in Malaysia.
Aman Futures Group was an investment and privately held company based in Malaysia with branches in the Philippines. It has also been allegedly engaged in a pyramid scheme. The group was founded by Amalilio, a Filipino of Malaysian descent.
Aman Futures was reported as a pyramid scheme by the National Bureau of Investigation.
The “double-your-money” was a phrase being pitched to join the network. NBI has said that there are about 8,000 complaints filed against the company and over 100,000 Filipino families were victimized.
After the manhunt for the brains behind the scam was launched, two of the company’s employees surrendered. Maria Donna Coyme, who is reportedly the chief finance officer of Aman Futures; and Jacob Razuman, one of the firm’s top brokers, were being investigated for their role in the scam said the National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine National Police. At least 21 police officers and two fire officers filed syndicated estafa complaint against the company. They said they were promised a return of their investment within eight days and a 50 percent to 80 percent profit for 17 to 20 days.
Malacañang has assured the victims of Aman Futures that authorities are doing their work to put to jail those responsible for the pyramid scam. /CDN Research with Chito Aragon and Michelle Padayhag