Quintin Robles and Rowena Villanueva during a vacation in Varadero, Cuba. The couple is accused of bilking investors in the Filipino community out of their lifesavings.
Husband-and-wife team facing fraud charges after allegedly preying on Filipino community
Published on Thursday December 20, 2012
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Quintin Robles and Rowena Villanueva during a vacation in Varadero, Cuba. The couple is accused of bilking investors in the Filipino community out of their lifesavings.
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Dale Brazao
Staff Reporter
A Toronto couple accused of bilking investors in the Filipino community in a phoney chiropractic clinic scheme has been arrested and charged with 34 fraud-related offences.
The arrests come a year after a Star investigation revealed dozens of investors were promised returns as high as 7 to 10 per cent a month if they invested in a chain of clinics in which one of the accused claimed to be a part owner.
Few got any money back. Most lost their entire savings.
Pursued by angry creditors, the couple dropped out of sight in late 2010, leading investors to believe they had returned to their native Philippines. The Star found the couple this past February living in a weathered rented townhouse complex at York Mills Rd. and the Don Valley Parkway.
Rowena Villanueva, 47, and her husband, Quintin Robles, 57, are each charged with 16 counts of fraud over $5,000. Villanueva also faces charges of theft of a credit card and using a credit card obtained by crime. The couple spent Wednesday in custody and were released on bail late Thursday on strict conditions including the surrender of their passports.
Toronto Police Det. Peter Christie of the financial crimes unit praised the victims, many of them caregivers and personal support workers, who put aside the pain and embarrassment of being taken advantage of to come forward with their complaints to police.
He also lauded the Star’s investigation in exposing the scheme. “You had done a great job reporting on it.”
Losses are estimated at $500,000, but Christie says there are more victims who have yet to come forward. He is encouraging them to do so now as the investigation is continuing.
Christie said he finds the alleged conduct of the accused in taking advantage of the “vulnerability” of their victims and their position in the community “deplorable.”
“Often in financial crimes people look at them and say, they are victims of their own greed, but this wasn’t the case here,” Christie said of the alleged fraud carried out between 2007 and 2011. “In no way were these people victims of their own greed. They were genuine bona fide victims that deserve whatever justice we can get for them.
Christie alleges the accused preyed on the vulnerability of their victims by telling them that by investing they would have more money to send back home to their families in the Philippines.
“The victims weren’t necessarily in it to line their own pockets,” Christie said.
The Star investigation found alleged victims ranging from widow Marcela Bautista, 72, who put in her entire $70,000 lifesavings, to 29-year-old Abby Pascual, who lost $90,000 after investing the proceeds of insurance policies from a serious car accident, as well as her mother’s life insurance.
“After all the heartache we’ve endured, this is a wonderful Christmas present,” said Pascual, who was instrumental in mobilizing the victims group and getting the fraud squad to listen to their stories after they had been turned down by other police divisions.
The Star investigation uncovered evidence that suggested Villanueva claimed to be part owner of the Physical Therapy One chain of clinics, using letterhead and business cards from the company to solicit investment funds.
In a $1.5-million lawsuit launched against the couple by Physical Therapy One Inc., the company says that while Villanueva was employed for a time as an independent contractor for referrals and marketing, she did not have any ownership.
Villanueva was fired after it was learned she was using the company name to solicit funds for her own endeavours, the lawsuit states.
Many of the victims had been involved in car accidents and told the Star that Villanueva referred them to specific doctors and clinics for treatment. In many cases, Villanueva also drove them to the bank to withdraw the funds they would then turn over to her.
“She basically held their hand in line at the bank,” Christie said.
Most of the investors were given official-looking contracts and a schedule of dividend payouts. Those contracts showed they were investing in a company called the Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation group headed by a doctor.
The Star investigation found evidence that the company was a phantom clinic, existing only on paper. The Star could not find the doctor. When investors demanded their money back they were allegedly given cheques that bounced.
Villanueva and Robles, who worked on the assembly line at Bombardier Aerospace in Downsview, pulled up stakes and disappeared after creditors began hounding them for their money.
And while some victims struggle to this day to pay back bank loans they took out to invest in the phantom company, Villanueva and Robles appeared unfazed by their pain.
Photos the Star found on Facebook showed the couple and their children on a luxury vacation in Cuba. Star readers also reported seeing the duo at Casino Rama in Orillia and the Blue Heron Casino in Port Perry.
Shortly after the Star tracked the couple to the rented townhouse in North York in February, Villanueva and Robles filed for bankruptcy, owing creditors more than $600,000. The lawsuit from Physical Therapy One has been stayed until the bankruptcy is dealt with.
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