The head of a company that purportedly operated a fish farm at Laguna Lake was collared over the weekend by authorities after a local court issued a warrant of arrest for defrauding his investors, which included a lawyer.
Brandon T. Aviles was arrested by elements of Oplan Pagtugis of the Criminal Investigation Detection Group on Saturday afternoon in the hinterlands of Barangay Mabato in Rosario, Batangas.
Local policemen aided the CIDG in implementing the arrest warrant issued by Judge Angelito S. David of Regional Trial Court Branch 101 of Sta. Rosa, Laguna.
No bail was set for the release of Aviles, who was brought to the CIDG’s Eastern Field Office for documentation.
The arrest stemmed from cases of estafa and syndicated estafa filed by complainants, who were induced by Aviles to invest in a company called AquaFarm, which claimed to be a fish farming business.
It turned out that AquaFarm was a scam, as it did not have a lease contract with the Laguna Lake Development Authority and was merely persuading unsuspecting investors to put in money in exchange for bigger financial gain.
Aside from Aviles, the Sta. Rosa Prosecutor’s Office also indicted his co-incorporators at AquaFarm —Raymond Encinares, Arneil D. Arenal, Gary Alfonso B. Alcasid, Rowena Alcasid, and Neil Jan Arias—for the same offense.