The founder and CEO of Filipino Cooperative Investment Loan (FCIL) Lenie Pangusan Camacho was arrested by Thai police on Monday at around 2:00 PM. Camacho is now in police custody.
Camacho is facing a string of criminal and civil cases filed by her victims after she went missing last month. She is also being questioned for illegally running a remittance business without permit. Warrant of arrest was issued last week.
Reports of incomplete transactions started to blow off early September. Camacho began hiding and allegedly ran away with her customers’ money amounting to more than 53 million baht or around 82 million in pesos. The money was a mix of investment for her FCIL business and OFW remittances. She also posted cryptic video messages on Facebook saying her business was losing and promised to pay back slowly. However, Camacho’s Facebook accounts were deactivated and she never properly communicated again. She also used dummy accounts according to some of her Filipino victims.
More than 700 Filipinos have been allegedly scammed by Camacho. She founded and ran a remittance business that offered a higher exchange rate as compared to other remittance companies.
Meanwhile, Annie Lyn, one of the victims who led the filing of complaints and communicated directly with the police said she and her group will continue pursuing their criminal cases against Camacho. The victims are also hopeful to still get their money back.
On September 12, a group of victims met with Embassy officials to ask for assistance.
Pinay runs away with OFWs money, remittances worth 53 million baht