Police arrest fake lawyer for alleged part in face shield scam

August 27, 2020

Criminal investigators arrested a fake lawyer for his alleged involvement in face shield sale scam in Taguig City last Tuesday.

Operatives from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) arrested Juan Antonio Evangelista, 47, during an entrapment operation inside a commercial building  at the Bonifacio Global City.

Police received complaints from two victims after Evangelista introduced himself as a lawyer and an authorized agent of SkyPhil Corp. engaged in selling of face shields.

Victims said the suspect told them he has plenty of stock kept at their warehouse in Paco, Manila and promised to deliver around 22,000 face shields after receiving P900,000 last August 22.

He also promised to deliver another 50,000 pieces for their second order.

CIDG said Evangelista's failure to deliver the face shields prompted complainants to proceed to the alleged warehouse where they were informed by a certain Eline Rafin that there were no stocks of face shields nor are they connected to the suspect.

Last August 24, the victims contacted Evangelista who said his delivery truck and his cellular phone had a problem. That’s why he was not able to deliver the face shields, Evangelista said.

Victims said Evangelista told them he cannot refund and will only have the items if they will pay for the second order amounting to P2 million.

The CIDG's Anti Transnational Crime Unit (ATCU)  planned and executed the entrapment operation which resulted to Evangelista's arrest.

Confiscated from Evangelista was a bag containing boodle money. He also surrendered an Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) ID and other government-issued identification.

“Upon verification with the IBP, it was revealed that the suspect is not a lawyer and the IBP Lifetime Number that appears in his ID belongs to another lawyer,” the report said.

The suspect will be facing charges for estafa and falsification of public documents. Ella Dionisio/DMS