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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider NBI files criminal charges vs officials, employees of 4 firms 'engaged' in 'Pakilotto'

NBI files criminal charges vs officials, employees of 4 firms 'engaged' in 'Pakilotto'

Published Oct 25, 2023 07:16 am

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said on Wednesday, Oct. 25, it has filed criminal complaints against the officials and employees of four companies allegedlly involved in the operation of the illegal online lottery game called "Pakilotto."

In a statement, the NBI said the complaints were filed before the Mandaluyong City Prosecutor's Office against the officials and personnel of Eplayment Corporation, Blockchain Smart Tech Co. I.T., GlobalComRCI International, and Paymero Technologies Limited.

Charged were Karlos R. Naidas, Homer C. Nieverra, May-I G. Padilla, Nina Rita P. Cinches, and Enrico L. Espanol, all from the Eplayment Corporation; Rafael Reyes, Jeffelyn Benavente Estiponam, Jane Pauline Benavente Estipona, Miriam Estipona Valderama, and OIiver Raandaan Francisco, all from Blockchain; Jose Mari Saulo of GlobalComRCI; and Luke Wingfield Digby of Paymero.

They were charged with violations of Republic Act (RA) 1169, an Act Providing for Charity Sweepstakes, Horse Races, and Lotteries, as amended; and Presidential Decree (PD) 1602, the Anti-Gambling Law, as amended by RA 9287, in relation to RA 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.

The NBI said the investigation was done by its Anti-Violence Against Women and Children Division (NBI-AVAWCD) based on complaints filed by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) which said that "Pakilotto" is not authorized to solicit and accept bets from the public.

The NBI said that its Digital Forensic Laboratory (NBI-DFL), during its open source intelligence gathering, found that “Pakilotto was indeed into online illegal gambling and collects bets from the public” and was even “re-broadcasting their video feed from www.pcso.gov.ph/livestream.aspx.”

“Investigation conducted by NBI-AVAWCD revealed that Pakilotto is no longer existing and the link is now under sukilotto.com. Also, it was discovered that companies Eplayment Corporation (Eplayment), Blockchain Smart Tech Co. I.T. Consultancy (Blockchain), GlobalComRCI International (GlobalComRCI), and Paymero Technologies Limited (Paymero) are the companies behind the operation of Pakilotto and that these four (4) companies have an existing Service Level Agreement (SLA) between them,” it said. 

Under the SLA, the NBI said “the four (4) companies entered into an agreement for the use of Paymero’s software that was developed in accepting payment and management of information of financial accounts.”

“This software is to be utilized by Eplayment to provide payment services to its customers while GlobalComRCI and Blockchain are mere facilitators of the agreement. Using the said system, Pakilotto and/or Sukilotto have acquired profits from the public, distributed between the four (4) companies,” it explained.

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National Bureau of Investigation (NBI)
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