30-yr-old Filipino orchestrates large-scale fraud as "King of Boiler Rooms"
25 Aug 08
Received an article in the mail about a 30-year-old Pinoy who amassed over $6B in a global securities scam in early 2000:
Young Filipino is King of Boiler Rooms (April 2002, PCIJ, Part 1)
Laws and Raids Fail to Thwart Boiler Room Activities (Part 2)
This two-part series documents the life and times—as well as the large-scale fraud—perpetrated by Amador Pastrana, a 30-year old Filipino who operates what could be the biggest scam syndicate in the world. Pastrana, who is based in Manila and Los Angeles, is the brains of a global network of boiler room operations that have duped thousands of investors who had little knowledge of the financial market.
This article traces Pastrana’s rise from an impoverished student and telemarketer to head of a worldwide fraud syndicate. His story is also the story of how liberalized global financial flows, the stockmarket boom, and the dotcom bubble have provided fertile grounds for high-tech fraud. Investigators estimate that the Filipino has victimized thousands of people, including pensioners in Australia, New Zealand and even South Africa, where one of the owners of De Beers Diamonds fell prey to his schemes.
Published accounts say that Pastrana has earned about $6 billion from his network of 150 boiler room operations in nine countries, including the Philippines. These are called “boiler rooms” because they usually work out of cramped office spaces with desks and telephones and apply high-pressure sales pitches on their victims. Each office has an army of telemarketers that call up retirees, pensioners, lottery winners and then pitch stocks of “pinksheet” companies, or those whose shares sell for a fraction of a penny, listed on the unregulated Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board (OTCBB) of the US NASDAQ.
Of course I couldn’t help but feel impressed, what with the awe I had of the 3 G’s (guns, goons, and gold) in the mafia movies of my childhood– The Godfather 1 to 3; Goodfellas, The Last Don, Casino, and even more recently, Ocean’s 11 and Catch Me If you Can –criminals glorified as glamorous, cunning and incredibly ingenious people who outwitted cops and lined their pockets with money money money. Couldn’t help but think that this story would make for a great Pinoy movie.
That awe bubble burst quickly enough, when I saw this list of overseas boiler room operations (dated 2000), which put together known overseas telemarketing scams.
Such a shame! 12 companies on that site had legit addresses in the Philippines! Some even in class A buildings in the heart of Makati! BOOOOO!!! Can’t imagine I’d been so naive as to never have expected this here…large-scale fraud masterminded by genial, non-psychotic Pinoys? Haaaaayyyyy.
Amado Pastrana, if my 10-minute research serves me right, has not been jailed or made to pay for his crime, and if what I picked up from another blog is correct, has resorted to spending his billions on social (sosyal?), partyclubbing companies for gays: CircuitAsia, Generation Pink Magazine, and Fabuloush.com
I find it disconcerting that (if the above is true), he hasn’t opted to keep a less visible profile, and that it’s actually very possible to see him around Manila. He’d be 36 now…and would probably frequent the same malls, restaurants, clubs as people in our circle.
Tsk tsk.
