Royal Manchester Five update: 8 officers charged with estafa
May 25, 2008
The latest development on the Royal Manchester Five (RMF) scam: the National Bureau of Investigation filed charges last week against eight officers and incorporators of the RMF Ponzi scam.
Charged with estafa at the Department of Justice (DOJ) were:
- Cyrus Hao, RMF board chair and president;
- Edwin Rosas, senior vice president;
- Rowena Uy, treasurer-chief finance officer;
- Joseph Bualoy, chief operations officer;
- Joesedev Colina, executive vice president;
- Cyril Alexander Digo, sales agent;
- Estrella Digo, sales agent; and
- Clarence Lao, sales agent
The charges were based on the complaints filed by 27 investors victimized by the Ponzi scam.
Cyrus Hao worked for the ‘Queen of Pyramiding’
March 20, 2008
Cyrus Hao, chief executive of Royal Manchester Five, apparently learned the ropes from Rosario “Rose” Baladjay, owner of pyramid scam Multinational Telecom Investors Corp. (Multitel), for whom he worked for prior to starting his own pyramid operation.
The Manila Standard reported that Cyrus Hao started recruiting people for Royal Manchester Five shortly after Multitel was shut down with Baladjay’s arrest in 2003.
Rose Baladjay is known as the “Queen of Pyramiding” in the Philippines after her Multitel company scammed more than P100 billion ($2.5 billion at the current exchange rate) from around 2 million investors. She enticed investors with guaranteed returns of 4-5% per month or, as an alternative, a double-your-money offer or 100% return after 18 months.
