Fugitive Legacy partner arrested, says Bangko Sentral

The alleged partner of the alleged mastermind of the P14-billion Legacy Group scam has finally been arrested after several months of being a fugitive, according to a lawyer for the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

Alexis Petralba, a Legacy Group executive, was arrested on Monday night in Tagbilaran, Bohol, after “months of surveillance” by joint police forces in Cebu and Bohol, according to lawyer Elmar Galacio.

“Petralba has been a fugitive from justice for months now, having evaded service of warrants of arrest against him, separately issued by courts in Ormoc City and in Danao, Cebu, in connection with nonbailable cases for syndicated estafa filed against him and other Legacy officers,” said Galacio, a litigation partner for the Villaraza Cruz Marcelo & Angangco law office (CVC Law).

Complainant

The central bank is the complainant in the various syndicated estafa and falsification cases against officers of the Legacy syndicate responsible for the collapse of several Legacy rural banks after it failed to service several billions of pesos worth of clients’ deposits in 2008.

Petralba is known as the liaison officer and chief implementor of the schemes designed by alleged Legacy mastermind Celso de los Angeles, supervising the operations of the various Legacy rural banks, a statement from the Villaraza law office said.

It is stated in the various syndicated estafa cases filed by the BSP’s Office of Special Investigation and CVC Law that the Legacy syndicate perpetrated a “systematic misappropriation” of funds amassed from the general public through various “deceitful schemes and promises of abnormal returns.”

This resulted in them “defrauding” the government, the banking industry and the public and even “sabotaged” the economy, the statement said.

Falsification

Essential to the success of their criminal enterprise was the falsification of financial records to mislead the BSP by making it appear that the Legacy rural banks still had sufficient assets, the statement added.

When the rural banks under the group could no longer sustain their operations, the Legacy group unilaterally declared a bank holiday in December 2008.