‘Con artist’ back in jail for 10th time

An alleged leader of a swindling syndicate, who had repeatedly managed to walk out of jail after posting bail, was again arrested by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation on Thursday.

This time, the new set of complainants against Rolando Basas included an elderly couple from Quezon City who said the suspect and his group had defrauded them of P2 million.

Romy Bon Huy Lim, chief of the NBI Criminal Intelligence Division, said the agents also found two pistols and an automatic rifle during a raid on Basas’ house at City Italia Subdivision in Bacoor, Cavite province. The guns were later found to be registered to a certain Nolan Sun.

“The suspect uses different aliases in every con operation and the registered owner of the guns could be his real name,” Lim said.

According to Lim, Basas and his cohorts’ modus operandi had remained the same:

They first look for property owners, preferably elderly people with retirement money, and pretend to be interested buyers. While the negotiation is going on, one or two more members of the syndicate would enter the picture and pretend to be also interested in the property.

The second set of con artists would then try to convince the property owners to help them with another business, “pearl enhancers,” and offer them commissions if they could find a supplier of that product.

Unaware that he is being set up, the victim would end up serving as a go-between for the two conniving groups, accept a “delivery” of the product from the supposed supplier, and be forced to hand over an advance payment from his own pocket because of an ‘’emergency.”

According to Lim, Basas had been issued at least nine arrest warrants for estafa in the past but was able to post bail after each arrest, the last of which was carried out last year.

Lim hoped that with an additional charge for illegal possession of firearms, “Basas could stay longer in jail so he could not lure more victims.”

Con artists like him use different names and try to change their appearance after every operation, the NBI official added.