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.
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.
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| 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.
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.
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.
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| 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.
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