Mikee Quintos, Paul Salas, 7 others file complaint vs. crypto group

Celebrity couple Mikee Quintos and Paul Salas on Monday filed an estafa complaint against a cryptocurrency group before the Makati City Prosecutor’s Office, according to Jonathan Andal's report on "24 Oras" Monday.

Quintos and Salas, along with seven other victims, filed a complaint against four individuals for alleged violation of Presidential Decree No. 1699 or Syndicated Estafa in relation to Articles 315 and 316 of the Revised Penal Code after they were supposedly scammed out of P8 million.

Quintos said she got the interest after a year of investing.

In May 2023, they were again lured to invest in the group's crypto and promised to double their money in just two weeks, so Mikee reinvested.

“But nakalipas ang two weeks, three weeks, binigyan namin ng month, wala na. Hindi na kami binalikan,” said Salas.

“My future brother-in-law ‘yung unang-unang naging connected sa kanila. So, I think that’s their modus din na aalagaan ka muna nila, you give a sufficient amount or big amount na, more or less p8 million ‘yung nakuha nila sa amin, e, tinakbo na nila,” said Quintos in an interview.

[My future brother-in-law is the first person who connected with them. I think that’s their modus that they will take care of you, make you believe that the transactions with them are okay until you give a sufficient amount — they took more or less P8 million for us — they ran off with it.]

Atty. Lance Tan, their lawyer, said the respondents are in their early 20s.

“This is syndicated estafa so this is life imprisonment. So sayang din naman. This is no bail. Like I said, sayang din naman, kawawa din naman sila, mga bata pa sila,” he said.

[This is syndicated estafa so it’s a waste. This is no bail. As I said, this is a waste and will be sad because they are still young.]

Tan said their camp is open to reaching a settlement with the respondents.

However, he said they would also write to the universities or schools of the respondents to inform them of what happened.

“Initially, we just want to let the school know. And then we’ll let the school act on it kung papaano 'yung appropriate na sanctions (as to what sanctions) or actions that they’re going to take,” he said.

According to Quintos, they were offered two deals by the group. 

“The first was compounding monthly [of] 5% kung magkano 'yung ipapasok mo. Depende sa iyo 'yun. May ledgers pa and everything,” she said.

[The first was a monthly compounding interest of 5% of your investment. It depends on you. There are ledgers and everything.]

“Tapos doon sa short term 'yun nga 'yung deal na kinuwento ni Paul na two weeks lang 'yung holding time, babalik na. Eh, dumating na ‘yung two weeks, delay, delay, delay. We gave them a chance na mag-revert sa amin pero wala talaga,” she added.

[For the short term, like what Paul said, there was a two-week holding time. But the two weeks came [and they] delayed, delayed, delayed. We gave them a chance to revert to us but they didn't.]

When asked if they wanted to tell the respondents anything, Salas asked them to do what was right and warned others against trusting too easily.

“Ito’y pagbibigay warning lang na huwag masyadong magtiwala agad kasi pinaghihirapan natin 'yung pera na ito. So bigay awareness lang din na let’s sleep on it, di ba, pag-isipan ang investments, huwag masyadong luwagan,” he said.

[This is to warn others to not trust too easily because we worked hard for this money. So this is to give awareness that we should sleep on it and think about our investments.] —with Sherylin Untalan/KG/BAP, GMA Integrated News