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Indonesia’s Quezon City Regional Trial Court has dropped the syndicated estafa charge against a Malaysian and four of his cohorts, including three Filipinos, involving the multi-billion dollar GoldQuest investment scam.
In a three-page order, Branch 219 Presiding Judge Bayani Vargas ordered the withdrawal of the case filed against Malaysian Vijay Eswaran, Joseph Bismark, Tagumpay Kintanar, Donna Marie Impson and Kurt Rocco Rinck, directors of GoldQuest International, Limited.

The Malaysian businessman and his three Filipino partners were arrested last May in Jakarta, Indonesia but had been released after a court there dismissed the Philippines’ extradition request on the ground that the crime of syndicated estafa does not exist in Indonesia’s statute books.
The order upholds the motion to withdraw information filed by Public Prosecutor Jennifer Cabanban-Ong on Aug. 23 and the motion to lift the warrants of arrest issued against the GoldQuest executives filed by State Prosecutors Rolando Ramirez and Philip dela Cruz on Sept. 3.

The twin motions were filed after the Department of Justice, in its Aug. 17 resolution, dismissed the case, saying there was no probable cause for syndicated estafa or even the simple offense of estafa.

The DOJ said that the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office, which recommended the filing of the case against the GoldQuest executives, erred in relying on the weak defense of the respondents rather than on the strength of the prosecution’s evidence.

The RTC judge granted the withdrawal of the information despite strong objection and opposition of the complainants, Enrico Noel Uy and Patrick Zuñiga.

The complainants through their legal counsels argued that the DOJ’s resolution is patently void having been issued in violation of its own rules on appeals as well as the basic tenets on due process and fair play. The complainants stressed that Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez conducted a review in a manner which violates even the most elementary rule of due process and fair play as he did not even notify them of said proceedings.
During the hearing of the motions, it was learned that the authority of the complainants’ legal counsel, Denise Monina Uy, to handle the prosecution of the case was already revoked after the DOJ had dismissed the case.

The court said that the private complainants could no longer cause the prosecution of the case since it was the government prosecutors who have control over the criminal case irrespective of the civil aspect.
“While the Secretary of Justice may have made a mistake and the fact that the private complainants issue that there were even technical errors in the proceedings before the DOJ, this court has to take into account the fact that it was the Department of Justice which meticulously reviewed the records while this court although evaluating the case portfolio is not in a position to side with the private complainants. If the court will be biased in favor of the private complainants, this is against the basic rule of this court requiring it to be fair to all the parties concerned,” Judge Vargas explained.

The judge further said the prosecutor’s motion and the similar motion of the DOJ could not be held in abeyance, otherwise the accused may complain that they are being harassed by the court with the pendency of the case, warrants of arrest with no bail allowed still outstanding for their arrest.

Uy and Zuniga claimed that the respondents solicited from each of them the amount of US$50,625.00 in 1998 on the promise that they would be issued shares of a company to be incorporated and eventually called GoldQuest International Ltd. (GQI) and that after six months their investment in GQI would earn $10,000 per month. The GoldQuest executives dismissed the allegation as a mere business dispute over profits. (www.gmanews.tv)