Case worker laments lack of relief for Emry’s victims

 

About 500 Filipinos lined up outside Emry's office for 4 months in 2016 for the fake jobs 

One of a handful of people who worked tirelessly to help hundreds of Filipino domestic workers get their cases against the now-defunct Emry’s Employment Agency heard, has expressed disappointment that the actual victims in the case never got relief.

Edwina Antonio, case officer of the Mission for Migrant Workers, was commenting after Emry’s co-owner Ester Ylagan, was jailed for 32 months on Feb. 2 after she pleaded guilty to four counts of laundering a total of $5.7 million which she made offering non-existent jobs to some 500 Filipinos.

Antonio, together with fellow case officer Ester Bangcawayan, represented more than 100 claimants against Ylagan in cases that started in July 2016 and dragged on for more than two years at the Small Claims Tribunal and the District Court. 

Buksan ang mga tip

A separate criminal case for money laundering, instead of illegal recruitment or fraud, was eventually filed against Ylagan  when she returned to Hong Kong in 2018, after fleeing to the Philippines.

 “Sa tagal nang inabot ng kaso, at daan-daang biktima, hindi sapat ang ilang buwang kulong na hatol sa kanya. Tapos ang kaso na isinampa laban  sa kanya ay hindi illegal recruitment kundi money laundering. Nasaan ang hustisya para sa kanyang mga biktima?”, said Antonio.

(The jail term is not enough for the many years that it took for the case to be resolved, and the hundreds of victims. To make it worse, the case filed against her was not for illegal recruitment. Where’s the justice for her victims?)

TAWAG NA!

“Ang nais lang naman ng mga biktima kaya sila nag-aplay ng trabaho sa Canada at UK ay para magkaroon sila ng opportunities na maisama ang kanilang mga pamilya na hindi pwede dito sa Hong Kong. Tapos isang kilala at dating maasahan na agency pa ang gumawa sa kanila nito. Kung meron lang sanang trabaho sa atin hindi ito mangyayari.”

(The victims applied for jobs in Canada and the UK so they could have an opportunity to  bring their families along, something which is not possible in Hong Kong. They didn’t realize that a well-known and reputable agency would do this to them. If there were enough jobs back home this would not have happened).

This was the same reaction by a handful of FDWs who faithfully followed up their complaints over the years, and even agreed to testify for the prosecution had Ylagan insisted on her innocence.

Following the sentencing, the first question asked by Aurora Hayag was “Paano na kami?” (What happens to us now?).

Hayag went to court on the last two days of the hearing, armed with the documents she had collected over the years, after filing and pursuing a complaint against Ylagan with the police and the Philippine Consulate.

PINDUTIN ITO

She paid $10,000 to Ylagan personally, hoping to secure a job for her son back in the Philippines, and  was shocked to learn that the highly regarded recruiter had scammed them.

But another victim who attended the sentencing said she had given up hope that she could recover the $10,000 that she paid Ylagan, but was there only to witness the recruiter being sent to jail.

“Diyos na ang humatol sa kanya,” (It was God that finally decided her fate), said Marites Bumayat, whose employers gave her full support and allowed her to attend the court hearings after learning about the deception.

3 victims were joined by Bangcawayan and another supporter after the sentencing

Ylagan, 71, had been out on $40,000 bail until she pleaded guilty to the four money laundering charges against her.

She was charged with sending more than $5.7 million she collected from her victims to various people in Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Turkey and Malaysia on the instruction of “William,” a person who interacted with her only through email.

William introduced himself as an employment agency owner based in the United Kingdom, and told Ylagan to recruit as many job applicants as she could find, and to send the money they paid her to various people in different countries.

Ylagan's own staff told investigators they warned her about dealing with this person, especially after several remittance companies stopped accepting their money, but she persisted. 

She herself admitted that in June 2016 she was advised by then Labor Attache Jalilo dela Torre that she was being scammed but she did not listen, resulting to Emry’s losing its recruitment license and being shuttered.

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 Katherine Lo said Ylagan collected more than $6 million from about  500 applicants.  Only part of what she made was sent to unknown persons abroad, and the rest, which amounted to about $570,000, was not accounted for.

“So the defendant received more than she remitted,” said the judge.

She used four years as starting point for the sentence, and gave Ylagan a total discount of 1/3 for her belated guilty plea, her remorse and for refunding money to some of the victims. 

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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.

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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. 

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Emry’s owner to stand trial next year in $5.7 million laundering case

 

Ylagan outside the District Court in earlier hearing (File)

After seven years of investigation and court hearings, 70-year-old former employment agency owner Ester Ylagan will be tried at the District Court between January and February next year, on charges of laundering a total of $5.7 million over a seven-month period in 2016.

The 15-day trial from January 15 to February 2, 2024 was set after a pre-trial hearing held in chambers today at the District Court.

Ylagan pleaded not guilty to all four charges of money laundering nearly a year ago, or on Sept. 20, 2022.

PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE!

The trial date was originally set for January this year but Ylagan’s counsel had asked for more time to review the documents in the case which include 4,000 depositions of 43 witnesses, including 25 listed as victims.

Ylagan’s bail of $40,000 was renewed until the trial, set before Deputy District Court Judge Katherine Lo.

According to the charge sheet read out to Ylagan in court on August 11 last year, the alleged offences took place between Jan 29 to Jul 8, 2016, and involved a series of transactions, all in violation of the Organized and Serious Crimes Ordinance.

PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE

In the first charge, Ylagan is accused of “dealing with property known or believed to represent proceeds of an indictable offence” on Jan 29 and May 5, 2016, in the sum 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.

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

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In the third count, Ylagan is accused with dealing with money believed to be proceeds from a crime, amounting to US$10,055 (HK$78,227) between May 25 and 26, 2016.

The last charge accuses Ylagan of handling a total amount of US$50,000 (HK$389,000), knowing it to be proceeds of a crime, on Jul 8, 2016.

The last two transactions were made using an account Ylagan held at HSBC.

OFWs line up to snap overseas jobs offered by Ylagan in 2016 (File)

The dates of the alleged offenses coincided with a job recruitment to Canada and the United Kingdom which Ylagan conducted at Emry’s office in WorldWide Plaza. At the time, Emry’s was the biggest recruitment firm for Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong.

Relying on Emry’s solid reputation in the business, about 200 Filipino migrant workers said they were enticed to apply for the jobs advertised by Ylagan, purportedly in the United Kingdom and Canada, for which each applicant was charged $10,000 or $15,000.

PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE

The jobs all turned out to be bogus, and Ylagan jumped the gun on the applicants by going to the police and complaining about an online business partner she named as William Clinton Evans who allegedly duped her of $4.19 million before disappearing.

Ylagan also told police in a statement that it was Evans, whom she met only online, who offered to place her applicants in the UK or Canada. But after signing up about 400 applicants, she said she stopped because Evans wanted her to double the number.

Her unseen partner then stopped communicating with her, and Ylagan fled to the Philippines. She returned to Hong Kong in June 2018 and was promptly arrested.

Lawyers acting for the complainants at the time claimed they uncovered 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, but only Ylagan was arrested and charged.

Of the more than 200 Filipino applicants who sought police help, about 150 have filed claims to recover their money from Ylagan.

Some of the claims were upheld at the Small Claims Tribunal in Ylagan’s absence while the rest were moved to the District Court where they remain undecided.

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Emry’s ex-owner set to challenge $5.7M money laundering case

By Daisy CL Mandap

 

A barrister is defending Ylagan against the money laundering charges (File)

A lawyer representing former employment agency owner Ester Ylagan indicated at the District Court today, Tuesday, that she intends to dispute four charges of money laundering she allegedly committed in 2016, involving a total of $5.7 million.

Barrister Michael Delaney asked for more time to review the case before a pre-trial review is set, saying it has been six years since the offences were allegedly committed, and four years since Ylagan was arrested.

PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE

He said there are more than 4,000 depositions to go through and 43 persons named as witnesses, including 25 listed as victims. He expects the trial to last from five to 10 days.

But when Judge Justin Ko King-sau asked if the defense could indicate by the next hearing date when a trial might be held, Delaney assured him they also want an early disposition as Ylagan is already 70 years old and is “anxious to have this matter dealt with.”

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After the prosecution raised no objection, Judge Ko set down the next hearing date on January 5 next year, with a pre-trial review being held on May 25, 2023.

Ylagan’s bail of $40,000 was extended on the same terms until then. 

PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE

Earlier, she was asked if she wanted a Tagalog interpreter in court, and she answered she could understand and speak in English. However, she eventually opted to keep a Tagalog interpreter during the succeeding hearings.

The former owner of Emry's Service Staff Employment Agency, which used to be the biggest recruiter of foreign domestic workers from the Philippines, came to court on her own.

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The four money laundering charges against Ylagan allegedly took place between Jan 29 to Jul 8, 2016, and involved a series of transactions, all in violation of the Organized and Serious Crimes Ordinance.

The first charge alleges that Ylagan dealt with property known or believed to be proceeds from a crime between Jan 29 and May 5, 2016, in the sum 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.

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

Her alleged offences were an offshoot of complaints made by some 400 Filipino migrant workers that she had recruited them for non-existent jobs in Britain and Canada from 2015 to 2016, for which they were charged between $10,000 and $15,000.

No one among the applicants managed to get back their money, despite attempts by the Mission for Migrant Workers to help them pursue claims against Ylagan in the Small Claims Tribunal and later, in the District Court.

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