Aman Futures Group (simply referred as Aman Futures) was an investment and

privately held company A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose Stock, shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in their respective listed markets. Instead, the Private equi ...

based in

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

with branches in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. It has also been allegedly engaged in a

pyramid scheme A pyramid scheme is a business model which, rather than earning money (or providing Return on investment, returns on investments) by sale of legitimate product (business), products to an end consumer, mainly earns money by recruiting new members ...

. The group was founded by Manuel K. Amalilio, a Filipino of Malaysian descent.

Controversy

Aman Futures was reported as a pyramid scheme in 2012 by the National Bureau of Investigation of the Philippines that duped some 15,000 people in

Mindanao Mindanao ( ) is the List of islands of the Philippines, second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and List of islands by population, seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the ...

and the

Visayas The Visayas ( ), or the Visayan Islands (Bisayan languages, Visayan: ''Kabisay-an'', ; Filipino language, Filipino: ''Kabisayaan'' ), are one of the three Island groups of the Philippines, principal geographical divisions of the Philippines, a ...

of P12 billion (US$295,000,000 est.). Authorities from the Philippines have set a manhunt for Manuel K. Amalilio, the founder of the company who left the Philippines for

Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah has land borders with the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and Indonesia's North Kalima ...

. The "double-your-money" was a phrase being pitched to join the network. NBI has said that there is about 8,000 complaints filed against the company and over 100,000 Filipino families were victimized. Irate victims of Aman Futures have ransacked an office rented by the company in Pagadian City. After the manhunt for the brain behind the scam was launched, two of the company's employees surrendered. Maria Donna Coyme, who is reportedly the chief finance officer of Aman Futures; and Jacob Razuman, one of the firm's top brokers, are currently being investigated for their role in the scam said the National Bureau of Investigation and the

Philippine National Police The Philippine National Police (PNP; ) is the national police force of the Philippines. Its national headquarters is located at Camp Crame in Bagong Lipunan ng Crame, Quezon City. Currently, it has approximately 228,000 personnel to police a pop ...

. Twenty one Filipino police officers and two fire officers filed syndicated estafa complaint against the company. They said they were promised a return of their investment within eight days and a 50-80% profit for 17 to 20 days. The

Malacañang Palace Malacañang Palace (, ), officially known as Malacañán Palace, is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the Philippines. It is located in the Manila district of San Miguel, Manila, San Miguel, along Jose Laurel S ...

has assured that the victims of Aman Futures should not take matters of their own, as authorities are doing their work to put to jail those responsible for the pyramid scam that duped thousands in the Visayas and Mindanao area. Gunmen related to the 14 December 2012 gunshot in

Zamboanga City Zamboanga City, officially the City of Zamboanga (; ; Subanen languages, Subanen: ''Bagbenwa Sembwangan''; Sama–Bajaw languages, Sama: ''Lungsud Samboangan''; ; ; ) is a Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, highly urbanized city i ...

were possible employees from Aman Futures. Investigators said it was possible that the attack may be linked to the Aman Futures that is known to have victimized thousands, including many policemen. In 2013, the founder of Aman Futures, Manuel K. Amalilio, was caught in

after pleading guilty to charges of holding false travel documents. He was then supposed to be deported to

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

on Friday, 25 January at estimated time of 19:45 PST to be jailed the NBI said. However, the Malaysian authorities stopped Amalilio's deportation and he was sentenced a two-year imprisonment in Malaysia. Some of the members of the Malaysian opposition in the Philippines disagreed in the Malaysian authorities' stopping of Amalilio's deportation during an interview at ANC. They also have questioned the jail sentence handed down to him in Malaysia. In 2014, Manuel was freed from Malaysian prison following a representation to the court by his family. The Malaysian Department of Foreign Affairs then declined the Philippines' request for extradition.

References

{{Multi-level marketing Defunct multi-level marketing companies Pyramid and Ponzi schemes 21st-century scandals Controversies in the Philippines 2012 scandals 2012 in the Philippines

Controversy

See also

References