{"id":777014245,"date":"2024-03-25T08:35:52","date_gmt":"2024-03-25T11:35:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777014245"},"modified":"2026-04-22T11:43:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T14:43:41","slug":"philippines-17-face-fraud-charges-over-casino-junket-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippines-17-face-fraud-charges-over-casino-junket-scam","title":{"rendered":"Philippines: 17 face fraud charges over casino junket scam"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Baguio City Prosecutor&#8217;s Office has indicted Hector Pantollana<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>The Philippines.- A group of people involved in casino junket financing have been charged with syndicated estafa, or large-scale fraud. Hector Pantollana, the purported leader of Horizon Players Club, along with the group&#8217;s Baguio and Cordillera region wing Team Z leader\u00a0<strong>Hazen Humilde<\/strong>\u00a0and 15 others, will face trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The group allegedly took over PHP4bn (US$71m) from more than 10,000 people in the Cordillera and nearby regions to invest in a casino junket scheme through false promises of a 5 per cent monthly return\u00a0and an additional 2 per cent for those who convinced others to invest. Over 200 people complained of fraud and said they never received their money back.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Securities and Exchange Commission issued a Cease-and-Desist Order (CDO) against Pantollana, Humilde and other leaders last March. Despite the CDO, the group continued to operate in Baguio City and Northern Luzon. Pantollana and his associates are facing similar charges in various courts in Metro Manila.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>See also:<\/strong>&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippines-senator-proposes-penalties-for-online-gambling-content\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Philippines senator proposes penalties for online gambling content<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Baguio City Prosecutor&#8217;s Office has indicted Hector Pantollana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":25406,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The Baguio City Prosecutor\u2019s Office has indicted Hector Pantollana, leader of Horizon Players Club, and 16 associates for syndicated estafa, involving over PHP4bn (US$71m) from more than 10,000 investors in a fraudulent casino junket financing scheme. Despite a Cease-and-Desist Order from the Securities and Exchange Commission, the group continued operations, facing similar charges across the Philippines.","focusai_entities":"Hector Pantollana, Horizon Players Club, Hazen Humilde, Team Z, Baguio City Prosecutor\u2019s Office, Securities and Exchange Commission","focusai_location":"The Philippines, Baguio City, Cordillera, Northern Luzon, Metro Manila","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.95), operator_casino (0.8), payments_fraud_aml (0.9), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Junket Operator Impact","query":"What are the broader implications for licensed junket operators in the Philippines following this indictment?"},{"label":"SEC Enforcement Evolution","query":"How will the SEC's enforcement strategy evolve given the disregard for the initial Cease-and-Desist Order and the scale of this fraud?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[439,16333],"tags":[20326],"class_list":["post-777014245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-illegal-gambling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777014245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777014245"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777014245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777014249,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777014245\/revisions\/777014249"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777014245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777014245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777014245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}