A female associate of “pyramiding queen” Rosario Baladjay was sentenced to suffer prision correctional for each of the 468 counts of syndicated estafa cases filed against her at the Makati Regional Trial Court.

Iris Aquino, chairman of the now defunct Everflow Group of Companies, Inc. (ECGI), was meted a minimum of four years and two months to a maximum of 20 years imprisonment after Judge Winlove Dumayas of the Makati RTC branch 59 found her guilty of swindling at least 468 individuals in a multi-million-peso pyramiding scam in 2002.

The complainants, led by Cecilia Draculan, had invested some P76.6 million to Iris’ ECGI, a conduit of Baladjay’s Multitel International Holdings, Inc. (MIHI). They sued Aquino’s husband Felix, sister Pearl Militar, and employees Francisco San Jose and Ma. Theresa Villorente, but Dumayas acquitted Felix and San Jose. Militar and Villorente remained at large as of press time.

Although Iris claimed that she and her husband were mere victims of circumstances, Dumayas said there was enough proof to convict her after the prosecution succeeded in establishing the conspiracy between her and Baladjay to deceive investors to put in millions of pesos in their companies.

Court records revealed that Baladjay’s MIHI could no longer entertain investments due to the limitations imposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Iris acquired EGCI from Baladjay to accept or solicit investments from the public. EGCI’s channeling of investments to Multitel violated the company’s articles of incorporation.

Finding the investment business lucrative, Iris encouraged her sister and co-accused Militar to establish an EGCI branch in Aklan. She also asked her husband to stop from his overseas employment and help her in the operation of EGCI as the company’s president.