The 2009 Manila Gold Scam

By Christina Retuya

With gold prices increasing amidst a global economy no longer enamoured withthe US dollar, sellers and buyers of the precious metal are engaged in a feedingfrenzy not seen for twenty years in the international gold market. Buyers aredesperately seeking out gold either on market or off market and sellers arecutting back discounts; even adding premiums to their offerings now that thereare more buyers than sellers.With the feeding frenzy comes a collection of sharks - many fraudulent sellers andbuyers - that prey on the desperation of genuine business men and women. Thesescammers often entice buyers to far flung corners of the globe where theypresent them with gold-plated lead and fake contracts showing thousands of metric tonnes for sale (the on-market gold stock above ground is considered to be150,000 metric tonnes). One such shark is the US citizen (originally from the Philippines) called BenjaminOlivares. Mr Olivares has a history of fraud - most recently a summary order tocease and desist selling unregistered securities in Pennsylvania from thePennsylvania Securities Commission.https://www.secure.psc.state.pa.us/releases/Members/index.cfm?page=ReleaseDetail&id=761&ReleaseType=&ReleaseDate=&ReleaseYear=&Desc=&Rescind=&CFID=291111&CFTOKEN=4d6824a97cb98cc5-6B469065-2B3A-77E0-851EBC4A2BB30727&jsessionid=8030564191247340302437 Olivaresknows the Philippines well - his sister is the well known Filipino Daily EnquirercolumnistBelinda Olivares-Cunanan and his brother is a Manila resident. Benjamin P Olivares- using the various trade sites where gold bullion brokerscluster - has sent brokers and buyers inventories of gold bullion and platinumshowing hundreds of thousands of metric tonnes of sellable precious metalshidden in various bunkers dotted around the Philippines. Using Skype and email,Olivares lures would-be investors into visiting Manila by sending themphotographs of so-called stock, treasure maps, fake assay reports, ownershipdocuments made using Microsoft Paint and fake bullion certificates. Once theseinvestors are salivating, Olivares offers them unheard of discounts of 40% even50% on deals (a standard gold bullion deal would have a discount somewherearound 8%). He then says that he will reserve site stocks for the investors as longas they fly out to Manila and stay for a while so they can visit the sites and gettheir assayers to assay the product he claims to be the “facilitator” for.

When investors arrive in Manila they are told to check in at the best hotel inManila’s Edsa district from where, until recently, Olivares ran his gold fraud fromthe 18

floor accompanied by a personal assistant Amanda and an entourage of crooks with form as long as your arm. Sometimes Olivares arranges it so thatguests “stay free” only for them to pick up a bill on departure. Day one usually involves Olivares showing investors a few holes in the groundoutside of Manila. This gives him a chance to get to know the investor and find outwhat makes them tick. The holes in the ground are described as “gold bunkersleft by Japanese stragglers” - he gives the impression the holes are being workedon now even though the most recent spade marks on the hole walls are severalmonths old. Jet-lagged investors go along with the charade - more bothered aboutgetting some sleep on the way back to Manila in the van than seeing somegenuine product on their first morning.Once back at the hotel, Olivares has been known to pull out a series of maps. Hewhets the appetite of likely buyers with tall tales about treasure sites full of bullion, Rolexes, Japanese Samurai swords, US government bond certificates andother assets which can be sold on immediately at huge profit. “X” marks the spotson the map. “The Philippines is the richest country on the planet” he says - while just metres from the hotel child beggars pick pockets and the Filipino populacesuffers as one of the lowest earning populations on the planet.After the investor has seen a few holes, Olivares’ gang is the next destination onthe conveyor belt of this scam. A crooked gang steps in to welcome the investor. This includes a veteran “Green beret” John Wagner (a US citizen allegedlyresident in Hong Kong) who deals with logistics and masquerades as a buyer forthe British bank RBS Coutts (with a budget of $600 billion yet he can’t afford tobuy coffees let alone pay his hotel bill). An Australian called Lance Blancheflowerwho claims to be a bullion broker for a large buyer and says he owns a largechunk of an Indonesian island from where he runs an environmental project (aparticularly repugnant individual known for berating innocent hotel receptionistsand getting physical with duty managers). A lady called “Ana” whose real nameis Catalina Villamarin who claims to be the late President Ferdinand Marcos’daughter and has an old lady in her wake by the name of Erutida De Guzman whopretends not to know what is happening but impersonates the Marcos familynanny to the point of Oscar nomination. A local Filipino, Manuel G. Reyes of SanPedro, Laguna who has links to Manila crime syndicates and works closely withOlivares to perpetrate various frauds. And finally a woman called Mirla Romerowho allegedly represents a Mindanao gold site in the south of the Philippines andcarries around various test tubes in her handbag full of gold dust and chopped upgold. All are complete fakes. None have links to any genuine gold stock. All workin union to defraud investors of as many thousands of Filipino pesos they can gettheir hands on while the investor stays in Manila. The gang is dangerous andmulti-faceted - making the innocent, jet-lagged investor wonder, even after hehas seen through Olivares, if the nice person introduced to him by Olivares isactually the honest key to a successful trade. So begins a carousel of fraud - theonly ways out are to locate genuine sellers (of which there are several in thePhilippines) or to get on the next plane out.

One pair of investors arrived in Manila and were introduced to Catalina Villamarinwithin a couple of days. After showing what appears to be valid Full CorporateOffers for 1123MT of gold held on deposit with Bangko Sentral Ng Philipinas, sheseemed credible enough for them to invest in a plane trip to a remote town called Tuguegarao City in the Northern Philippines, where they were told they would seegold stocks and paperwork that established legal title to the metal hidden away incaves a few hours trek from Tuguegarao City airport.In the meantime Ben Olivares sat down with one of the pair and asked him for$USD 8,000 to help pay for a charter plane arriving from the South which wouldgive him 1% of the deal by that same afternoon (a return of approximately 1000%within 10 hours). The investor handed over a credit card he knew would berejected to keep face and, in spite of creeping doubts about Olivares, knew thatwould be enough to maintain a reasonable relationship with Olivares so that hewould continue to introduce him to gold sellers.When the pair of investors arrived in Tuguegarao City with Villamarin a couple of days after the chartered plane money request, they were met by a party of Villamarin’s colleagues who, instead of escorting the pair to a cave, took them toa local mall where they were forced to pay for everyone’s lunch and then to amosquito-ridden hotel where they were made to pay for two rooms so thatproduct (a few gold bars) could be viewed by them in the security of the hotel. Already suspicious, the pair hid money they had brought with them in their bootsand credit cards in their bag lining. When eventually the gold appeared they werenot allowed to hold it or touch it and so they were not able to verify if it wasgenuine or not.Next the gang associated with Villamarin started demanding mobilization andsecurity costs from the investors who - having paid a thousand dollars already toVillamarin to arrange the trip - claimed they had no cash. There followed variousheated exchanges and the pair realized their personal safety was now at risk. Torelease tension they walked to the nearest ATM and took out 20,000 pesos each($USD 800) on debit cards - claiming that was their daily limit - handed it to thegang and then escaped to jump on the next bus to Manila. The gang hadpromised in the meantime to take pictures of the cave stock for them and tooktheir cameras to do so (the last ever seen by the investors of their cameras). Thegang also promised they would be in Manila within 24 hours with one metric tonneof gold but of course neither the gold nor they ever materialized. This pair were lucky. Their visit coincided with the hotel in Edsa realizing that theytoo were being taken for a ride by Benjamin Olivares, John Wagner and LanceBlancheflower who had not paid their hotel bills for quite some time. Olivaresowed several thousand dollars and was given twenty four hours to pay up whilethe hotel ran out of patience with John Wagner and the investors returned from a