Emry’s owner jailed 32 months for laundering $5.7m earned from jobs scam

 

Ylagan running for cover after an earlier hearing of her case at the District Court  (File)

The co-owner of what used to be the biggest employment agency deploying Filipino workers to Hong Kong was today sentenced to 32 months’ imprisonment for laundering more than $5.7 million she made from defrauding about 500 jobseekers.

Ester P. Ylagan, 71, was stoic as she was sentenced by Deputy District Judge Katherine Lo, two weeks after she pleaded guilty to four charges of money laundering. 

The charges stemmed from the cash remittances she made to various people in Malaysia, Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Turkey between January to July 2016, knowing that the money she sent were proceeds from a crime. 

In court to witness the end of the seven-year case were three of more than 100 Filipino victims who filed complaints against Ylagan after being charged between $10,000 and $15,000 each for non-existent jobs in the United Kingdom and Canada. 

Joining them was Ester Bangcawayan of the Mission for Migrant Workers who helped pursue their case with the police and the courts.

Her victims (first 3 from the left) were in court along with staff of the MFMW

Dozens of victims had agreed to act as witnesses against Ylagan, if she persisted in pleading not guilty to the charges. Those who were in court said they were glad that Ylagan was finally going to jail, but were upset that she was not ordered to compensate them.

The judge said Ylagan promised the mainly domestic helper applicants jobs in Canada and the UK, with salaries of as high as £2,000 for any job. Keen to leave their Hong Kong jobs, they paid Ylagan more than $6 million in total between January and June 2016.

The judge said part of this sum was remitted by Ylagan overseas. The rest, which she said amounted to about $570,000, was not accounted for. “So the defendant received more than she remitted,” said the judge.

Pindutin para sa detalye

This belied the defense claim that Ylagan was herself a victim, asserting that about $2 million of what she sent overseas was her own money.

More than 100 complainants against Ylagan gathered outside Central police station in 2016

In the first charge, Ylagan was accused of remitting a total of HK$2,633,181.52 and US$44,658 (HK$347,439) to Malaysia, Nigeria and Burkina Faso between Jan 29 and May 5, 2016. The total sum of HK$2,980,620 was dealt with in cash.

In the second count, she was accused of moving a total sum of US$300,000 (HK$2,334,000) from an account with Standard Chartered Bank to a recipient in Turkey from May 12 to 23, 2016.

The third charge said Ylagan, using her account at HSBC, again sent to Turkey a total of US$10,055 (HK$78,227) between May 25 and 26, 2016.

TAWAG NA!

In the fourth charge, she remitted again to Turkey a total of US$50,000 (HK$389,000) from her HSBC account on Jul 8, 2016.

Judge Lo said that Hong Kong laws provide a maximum jail term of 14 years and a fine of up to $5 million for the crime of money laundering.

In Ylagan’s case, she used as starting point a sentence of four years in jail, but after allowing a one-third discount - 23% for the guilty plea and 10% for the supposed reimbursement of 45 victims - and applying the totality principle, arrived at a sentence of 32 months for all charges.

PINDUTIN DITO

Before sentencing, the judge noted that Ylagan had continued sending money to “William,” a recruitment agent she met only online, even after being warned by the Philippine Consulate that she was being scammed.

Even her own staff at Emry’s had refused to send any more money on her behalf after several remittance companies stopped taking their orders as early as April 2016, but she persisted.

Ylagan, here at The SUN office in May 2016, was advised to return the OFWs' money immediately  

Rejecting the mitigation that Ylagan had been put under severe stress by the long period of time it took for the case to be resolved, the judge said the delay was “not entirely unreasonable.” She noted that the police had to interview about 100 of more than 500 victims, and had to check with several remittance companies and consult the consulates of the Philippines, the UK and Canada to build up their case.

Ylagan’s jail time will only partly vindicate the duped jobseekers, who had clung to the hope that they could still recover their money, despite the defendant filing for bankruptcy earlier. Her lawyer also told the court that she had subsisted on her earnings as an assistant cook, and later, on financial assistance from the government.

Through her counsel, Ylagan claimed she had intended to refund her victims by selling her flat in Aberdeen, but that her erstwhile friend and legal adviser, barrister Ody Lai, who offered to sell it for her, managed to acquire ownership over the property without paying her anything. Ylagan said she was still seeking Legal Aid to recover the flat.

Ylagan fled Hong Kong in July 2016 after the victims filed complaints with the Philippine Consulate and the police, and Emry’s was forced to shut down.

Before leaving Hong Kong, she jumped the gun on the complainants by going to the police to file a complaint about being duped of $4.19 million by a business partner she met only online, named William Clinton.

She and her husband, Ricardo Ylagan (who passed on in October 2017), also managed to transfer ownership over their Aberdeen flat to their son, Ridge Michael, on July 23, 2016, allegedly on Lau’s advice. 

But on March 20, 2017, the flat was recorded as having been sold to Lai for $5 million. (Related story here: http://www.sunwebhk.com/search?q=Ody+Lai&m=1 

In December 2017, Ester returned to Hong Kong and filed a complaint with the police against Lai, who was investigated but was allowed to post bail.

On June 7, 2018 Ylagan was formally arrested by the police for money laundering. She was also allowed to post bail.

All throughout, her victims were given help by then Labor Attache Jalilo dela Torre, the Consulate’s assistance to nationals section, the Mission for Migrant Workers, and The SUN.

In mitigation, defense counsel Michael Delaney said Ylagan, a college dropout, came to Hong Kong to work as a domestic helper in 1984. She was married with three children in the Philippines at the time.

Ylagan later divorced her first husband and married Rick Ylagan, who founded Emry’s in 1992. She bore him a son, Michael.

She had a clear record for the past 40 years in Hong Kong prior to the job scam saga. Letters submitted to court by various people, including employers and church people, described her as a woman of good character, while her lawyer said she was remorseful and at her age, is not likely to reoffend.

PADALA NA!

Call us!

CALL US!

Emry’s owner admits laundering $5.7 million earned from offering bogus jobs

By Daisy CL Mandap

 

Ylagan outside the District Court following an earlier hearing of her case(File)

After more than seven years of insisting on her innocence, the co-owner of the defunct Emry’s employment agency finally pleaded guilty today, Jan 15, to four charges of laundering a total of $5.7 million which she made from offering non-existent jobs in Canada and the United Kingdom to some 500 Filipinos, mostly migrant workers.

Ester Ylagan, 71, who was described by her own lawyer as “extraordinarily naïve and gullible,” appeared on the dock for the first time since charges were filed against her in June 2018, and was ordered remanded in custody until her sentencing on Feb. 2.

In court to listen to her plea were about a dozen Filipino domestic workers whom Ylagan had duped into paying between $10,000 and $15,000 for the bogus jobs in the first half of 2016. They had been told by the police about the hearing, and that Ylagan had agreed to plead guilty.

TAWAG NA!

The offence of money laundering, or “dealing with property known or believed to represent proceeds of an indictable offence”, carries with it a maximum jail term of 14 years, and a fine of up to $5 million.

Ylagan had earlier insisted that she was innocent of the charge, claiming that she was a victim herself of an online scammer she named as “William Clinton”, who convinced her to recruit applicants for the bogus jobs, and to whom she had remitted all the money she made from the victims.

Her counsel, Michael Delaney, told Deputy District Judge Katherine Lo that it took awhile for Ylagan to understand that the offence of money laundering requires not just knowledge, but also “reasonable ground to believe” that she was dealing with proceeds of a crime.

PINDUTIN

“It’s not just what the defendant believed but what a reasonable, objective, person should have known,” said Delaney.

He also said there was a “substantial volume of evidence” that showed Ylagan should have known that she was being scammed, like the fact that she was being asked to send money by a person she had never seen nor spoken to, to such places as Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Turkey.

The person who introduced himself to Ylagan as a recruitment agent in the United Kingdom, also asked that the money be sent to someone called Joshue Ikechukwa or Rocky Sanchez, when his name was supposed to be William Clinton.

It even got to a point where Ylagan’s staff who were being asked to do the transactions began getting  scared, especially when by the end of  April 2016, the remittance companies started rejecting their remittance requests.

All the while, Ylagan and the man who called himself Clinton were said to be in “constant, daily and repeated communication” online, said Delaney, adding that he had never seen anything like it.

He said Clinton would be kind and gentle one time, then harsh, “almost borderline cruel” the next time, and was constantly putting pressure on her. 

Delaney said the person Ylagan was communicating with was an obvious scammer and fraudster, but she never saw him like this at the time. “The defendant just followed whatever he said,” said the lawyer.

To make matters worse, Delaney said Ylagan was also defrauded by a barrister who convinced her to sell her Hong Kong flat ostensibly so she could refund the payments made by the job applicants, but then proceeded to pocket the proceeds.

(In an earlier statement she made to the police, Ylagan identified the barrister as Ody Lai, who at the time of their consultation in November 2016, had already been suspended by the Barristers Disciplinary Tribunal from practising in Hong Kong for four years, and to pay a penalty of $200,000 plus costs, for 10 counts of malpractice).

Delaney said that 12 months after Ylagan filed her complaint with the police,  the barrister was arrested, although no further action had been made since. However, Ylagan is said to have applied for legal aid to pursue her claim against Lai.

The ad posted outside Emry;s office in WorldWide Plaza in 2016

According to the summary of facts read out by the prosecution, Ylagan was part owner of Emry’s which was founded in 1992. She later set up Mike’s Secretarial Services in 2013 and she operated  it as a sole proprietorship.

From December 2015  to May 2016 Ylagan advertised in a Filipino community newspaper (not The SUN) regarding job offers in Canada and the UK, and also posted information about this on her shop in WorldWide Plaza.

During regular orientations she conducted for the applicants, she said those who wanted to apply for jobs in Canada should pay $15,000 while those who wanted to work in the UK should pay $10,000. The fees are supposed to be for the FICC (or Foreign Immigrant Clearance Certificate” and  FCC (“Foreign Employment Certificate”) and are non-refundable.

In fact, said the prosecutor, the FCC or FICC is not needed before one can take up a job in either of the two offered destinations.

Ylagan promised the jobseekers that they would be paid no less that 2,000 pounds a month, tax free, and given free accommodation. After working for two years, they would be given three months’ vacation with pay. She also promised that they could leave in three months on a chartered plane to London, accompanied by Hong Kong immigration officers.

According to the prosecution, more than 500 Filipino domestic workers were lured by these promises, , paying Ylagan a total of more than $6 million.  Between January and June 2016, part of this sum was remitted to overseas channels.

'What about us?,' asked some of the copmplainants who attended court along with 
Ester Bangcawayan from the Mission for Migrant Workers 

In the first charge, Ylagan is accused of sending to Malaysia, Nigeria and Burkina Faso  between Jan 29 and May 5, 2016, a total of of HK$2,633,181.52 and US$44,658 (HK$347,439). The total sum of HK$2,980,620 was dealt with in cash.

In the second count which happened between May 12 to 23, 2016, the total sum of USD300,00 (HK2,334,000) was moved by Ylagan from an account with Standard Chartered Bank to a recipient in Turkey.

In the third count, Ylagan, using an account she held at HSBC, again sent to Turkey a total of US$10,055 (HK$78,227) between May 25 and 26, 2016.

She last sent a total sum of US$50,000 (HK$389,000) from her HSBC account on Jul 8, 2016, again to Turkey.

In mitigation, Delaney said Ylagan first came to Hong Kong to work as a domestic helper in 1984. She had gone to college but did not finish her course. At the time she was married with three children in the Philippines.

She later divorced her first husband and married again, this time to Rick Ylagan, who founded Emry’s in 1992. They had one son, Michael.

Ylagan has maintained a clear record for the past 40 years that she has been in Hong Kong. She is in good health though she has take medication for stress-induced heart palpitation.

Following her arrest she had worked as an assistant cook, but is currently unemployed, and depends on government support for her daily needs.

Delaney submitted that Ylagan “was not a willing participant in the scam,” made no financial gain from the transactions, and was extremely remorseful.

Delaney added that Ylagan received only about $4 million from her job applicants, and the rest of what she had sent to the scammer was her own money. But when Judge Lo asked if there was proof of this, Delaney said there was none.

The judge then asked Delaney if Ylagan had repaid some of the claimants, and he replied that only a handful got back their money. Judge Lo instructed him to submit proof within the next three days to show how much money had been repaid so this could be taken into consideration when sentencing. 

PADALA NA!

Call us!

CALL US!

Labatt decries dropping of labor cases vs Ylagan

By Vir B. Lumicao

Ylagan in photo taken after
her return to HK in Dec 2018

Former recruitment agent Ester P. Ylagan, who is accused of collecting millions of dollars from about 500 Filipino job applicants, has gotten away from 23 charges of  collecting excessive commission when labour prosecutors withdrew the charges against her.

Magistrate Peter Yu Chun-cheung approved the dropping of the charges at the request of prosecutors when the case was heard at Eastern Court for the fifth time on Jul 12.

The prosecutors said that they had decided to withdraw the charges “to avoid jeopardizing possible action to be taken by the police”.  

A statement sent by the Labour Department to The SUN said Ylagan had been arrested by the police for suspected involvement in more serious offences arising from the alleged job scam, and had subsequently gone bankrupt.

The cases stemmed from complaints filed in mid-2016 by about 200 Filipino job applicants from Hong Kong, Macau and the Philippines, who claimed to have paid Ylagan between $10,000 and $15,000 each for non-existent jobs in Britain and Canada.  

Outgoing Labor Attaché Jalilo dela Torre deplored labour’s action, saying the withdrawal of the cases filed by the Employment Agency Administration sends a chilling message that the interests of foreign helpers here are not Hong Kong’s concern.

 

Outgoing Labatt says the dropping of charges sends 'chilling' message

“It is sad that in a case which victimized hundreds of Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong, the EAA has decided this way. There is ample evidence showing the owner of this agency committed a criminal offence by charging placement fees in amounts way above what is allowed by Hong Kong law,” Labatt  Dela Torre said.

“The EAA’s decision sends a chilling message to the community of 340,000 foreign domestic helpers—that your interests and the need to protect them are not our (Hong Kong’s) priority,” he said.

Call us!

“This flies in the face of the oft-repeated exhortation that foreign domestic workers are important to Hong Kong. In this case, the EAA seems to be telling the community they are not important,” Dela Torre said.

Consul Paulo Saret, head of the Consulate’s assistance to nationals section, said they will now press Hong Kong justice officials to speed up the filing of fraud and money laundering cases against Ylagan. 

Ylagan, along with her solely owned company, Mike’s Secretarial Services, was originally charged by the EAA with 23 counts of “receiving payment other than the prescribed commission” under the Employment Ordinance.

Call us now!

Ylagan also co-owned Emry’s Service Staff Employment Agency, which at the time of the filing of cases against her, was the biggest recruiter of Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong.

More than 200 of her alleged victims had sued her in the Small Claims Tribunal in August 2016 to get back their money. About a dozen had won their claims, until the Tribunal decided to consolidate the remaining cases, and passed them on to the District Court for adjudication. They have remained there since. (https://www.sunwebhk.com/search?q=ester+ylagan)

Ylagan pre-empted the filing of complaints against her by going to the police in May 2016 to say that she herself had been a victim of a Britain-based job recruiter. She claimed she had lost  $4.2 million to this recruiter, which included money paid her by her applicants, in effect admitting she had violated the law against overcharging.

But it was only in June this year that police arrested Ylagan on suspected fraud and money laundering, along with her former friend and adviser, suspended barrister Ody Lai.

Police say the cases against the two have already been elevated to the Department of Justice for evaluation and possible prosecution in court.

===

      I-TRY MO ITO, KATRIBO!

Mas madali nang tawagan ang mga advertiser natin dito. Pindutin lang ang kanilang ad at lalabas ang automatic dialer. Isa pang pindot ay matatawagan mo ang advertiser na hindi na kailangang i-dial ang numero nila. I-try mo!

CALL US!

Press ad to call

Call us now!

Call us!

Call us!

Call us!

View details...

Call us!

Call now!

Govt accountant report sought in Peya’s case

By The SUN

Irate customers swarmed Peya's office in Central in Dec 2018 after failing to board their flights

Hong Kong HK Police say they are just waiting for the government accountant’s report on the Peya Travel ticketing fiasco before deciding on how to proceed with the case.

 “About Peya, we’re still waiting for the (government) accountant to furnish the accountant’s report as requested by the advising counsel,” a police investigator from the Regional Crime Unit said in an SMS message to Consul Paul Saret, who updated The SUN on the case on May 9.

Press ad to find out 5 selected agent
locations, and terms of this promo.

The officer also said the police have wrapped up its investigation into the case, which blew up in December 2017 when hundreds of Peya customers heading home for their Christmas vacation failed to board their flights because the travel agency did not pay the airlines for their tickets.

Ylagan

Earlier, the police also completed its investigation into the alleged fraud committed by employment agency owner Ester Ylagan in which hundreds of Filipino jobseekers were duped into paying between $10,000 and $15,000 for non-existent jobs in Britain and Canada.

PRESS FOR MORE SPECIAL OFFERS!

The case against Ylagan is now with the Department of Justice, which will determine whether a case should be filed against her for fraud.

“All remittance records have been collected and the duplicated files have been submitted to the Justice Department. The case is now with the Justice Department seeking for legal advice,” the officer said.

Call us!

Saret said the remittance records pertain to where Ylagan had sent the estimated $4 million that she collected in January to May in 2016 from about 500 job applicants, using her two companies: Emry’s Service Staff and Employment Agency, and Mike’s Secretarial Services.

But Saret said Ylagan’s alleged fraud toward her applicants is separate from the conspiracy to defraud and money laundering cases against Ylagan and suspended barrister Ody Lai Pui-ying that appeared to have arisen from the job scam.

CALL US NOW!

Ylagan, who was arrested on Jun 7 last year, a few months after returning to Hong Kong from the Philippines, is also facing several cases of overcharging the job applicants which were filed by the Labour Department.

Lai

Lai was arrested at the Hong Kong International Airport on Aug 30 last year as she returned also from the Philippines.

Meanwhile, Saret said the case against Peya should also move forward once the government accountant submits his report on the travel agency’s financial activities before the booking scandal forced it to shut down.

Call now!

Police arrested Rhea Donna Boyce or “Yanyan”, co-owner of Peya Travel, on Christmas Day last year in her Wanchai flat on suspicion of conspiring to defraud the company’s stranded clients.

Her Australian husband and Peya co-owner Peter Boyce was arrested afterwards but was eventually cleared.

CALL US

A co-accused, Peya’s sales and marketing manager Arnold Grospe, was arrested on Jun 6 last year.

Ylagan, Lai, Yanyan Boyce and Grospe  are all out on police bail.

===

I-TRY MO ITO, KATRIBO!

Mas madali nang tawagan ang mga advertiser natin dito. Pindutin lang ang kanilang ad at lalabas ang automatic dialer. Isa pang pindot ay matatawagan mo ang advertiser na hindi na kailangang i-dial ang numero nila. I-try mo!

CALL US!

Call us!

Call now!

Press ad to call

Call us now!

Call us!

Police probe of money laundering case vs Ylagan, Lai almost done, says Labatt

By The SUN

Hong Kong police are close to wrapping up their investigation into the money laundering case filed against former employment agency owner Ester P. Ylagan and suspended barrister Ody Lai Puy-yim relating to a massive job scam two years ago.

Labor Attaché Jalilo dela Torre disclosed this in an interview with The SUN on Nov 28.

 Ester P. Ylagan and suspended barrister Ody Lai Puy-yim during happier times.

“Malapit na nilang matapos yung money laundering investigation. Kailangan lang nila ang proof na na-receive yung remittances by all those fictitious-sounding people sa iba’t ibang countries,” Labatt Dela Torre said.

He said he was updated on the progress of the investigation during a meeting with the head of the Regional Crime Unit of Hong Kong Island on Nov 23. The meeting was also attended by Consul Paulo Saret, head of the Consulate’s assistance to nationals section.



After the investigation, the police are expected to forward the case to the Justice Department which will determine whether the case should be filed in court.

Ylagan, owner of the now defunct Mike’s Secretarial Services, was arrested on June 7 in Western District for “conspiracy to defraud” and “dealing with property known or believed to represent proceeds of an indictable offence (also known as money laundering).”



Lai, her one-time friend and alleged adviser, was arrested on Aug 30 at the Hong Kong International Airport on her arrival from the Philippines. She is also being investigated for the same allegations.

Ylagan and Lai have been released on police bail but were required by investigators to report back on a regular basis.



The cases stemmed from complaints filed by 210 Filipinos, mostly migrant workers, alleging they had been deceived by Ylagan into paying between $10,000 and $15,000 for fake jobs in Britain and Canada.

The total number of Filipino job applicants allegedly lured into applying for the non-existent jobs were estimated to have been more, with the total amount involved reaching as much as $5million. The victims came from Hong Kong, Macau and the Philippines.



Lawyers for the complainants subsequently reported uncovering documents showing Ylagan and several other people close to her had sent a total of around $10 million to several countries as far apart as Malaysia and Burkina Faso.

The documents were turned over to the police, along with the names of the others involved in the apparent money laundering scam.



With help from the Mission for Migrant Workers, the complainants succeeded in getting legal aid to pursue their claims.

Ylagan slipped out of Hong Kong in mid-July 2016 in an apparent bid to head off a possible arrest. Before she fled, she filed a complaint with the Central Police station against a London-based business partner who reportedly duped her of $4.19 million.



She said the partner, a certain “William Clinton James,” had made her send the money to unknown people in Burkina Faso on the promise that he had jobs waiting for her recruits. In return, she was promised a British passport, 15 plane tickets to London, and a chance to explore business opportunities in the United Kingdom.