International
bank fraud group
busted here

A trio from the Philippines
is suspected of taking and altering
stolen U.S. Treasury checks

By Jaymes Song
Star-Bulletin

U.S. Secret Service agents Tuesday arrested the leaders of a Philippine-based crime group that is believed to have defrauded the U.S. government and other countries of more than $100 million since 1983.

Officials said the arrests, which were made in a Waikiki hotel room after the suspects met with an agent acting as a corrupt First Hawaiian Bank official, is the largest fraud operation ever broken by the Secret Service.

The alleged leader, Trinidad Ramos Santos, 54, and her daughter-in-law Agnes Santos, 33, were charged with criminal conspiracy and bank fraud. Jaime "Golden Arm and Golden Hand" Quito, 43, was charged with alteration of government instruments, said Al Joaquin, the special agent in charge.

The group is alleged to have taken U.S. Treasury checks stolen through armed robberies of postal vehicles and post offices throughout the United States and the Philippines.

The checks were sent to the Philippines, where they would be under the control and direction of the three suspects.

Quito would alter the checks by changing the numbers and making some checks worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, Joaquin said.

"Golden Arm possesses the skill of a surgeon," Joaquin said. "He is capable of counterfeiting, altering and forging any and all types of monetary instruments of the United States and its financial institutions. He was so good that counterfeited, altered instruments are virtually undetectable to the naked untrained eye."

The Secret Service has worked for a year to identify the group, but didn't identify the leaders until six months ago.

Quito and a girlfriend were approached at Angeles City, Philippines, Jan. 10 by police on a tip regarding illegal activity -- and the two agreed to cooperate.

After meetings in the Philippines, which police secretly monitored, in which the defendants planned a transaction with First Hawaiian Bank, Quito, Trinidad Ramos Santos and Agnes Santos flew to Honolulu.

Agents believe the the group's criminal activity has reached into other countries outside of the United States, including Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Canada. However, the proceeds were laundered through Philippine financial institutions.

"The financial fraud perpetrated by Trinidad Ramos Santos and Quito cannot be measured solely from its financial impact," said Joaquin. "More importantly, they attacked the integrity and confidence that individuals have in financial institutions and world economies faced in monetary instruments issued by the United States of America."

Agnes Santos appeared before a U.S. magistrate Tuesday afternoon and went free on bond; Quito and Trinidad Ramos Santos will appear for a detention hearing tomorrow, said assistant U.S. attorney Omer Poirier.

Officials said since the alleged masterminds of the group have been apprehended, they want to pursue other suspects in the United States and the Philippines.

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Star-Bulletin reporter Harold Morse
contributed to this report.