THE central bank has hired a top law firm to handle the criminal cases it has filed against Celso de los Angeles and the other officials of the cash-strapped Legacy Group.

CVC Law represented the central bank on Thursday when it filed a P1-billion estafa case against the group’s officials before the Justice Department, said Elmar Galacio, a CVC Law partner.

He made the statement even as the state-run Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. said it was also preparing criminal cases against the same officials.

On Thursday, the Securities and Exchange Commission separately filed criminal charges against the Legacy Group for violations of the Securities Code.

The central bank accuses De los Angeles of conceiving and hatching a criminal scheme to swindle the public and to siphon funds from the Rural Bank of DARBCI, a member of the Legacy Group and which has offices in General Santos City and Cebu City.

It said the bank had P830 million in deposits as of Sept. 30 last year but had only P1 million in cash on the same date.

It closed 15 rural banks last December, and of those at least 12 are suspected of being part of the Legacy Group. It said its investigation revealed a massive diversion of funds from those banks using fictitious loans.

Many of the borrowers credited with loans denied having obtained them, and others admitted receiving P10,000 to P15,000 to sign blank documents that were later used as supporting papers for loans.

“We have a very, very strong case because we have unearthed their money-making schemes,” Galacio said.

“These are elaborate, multi-million-peso grand swindling schemes.”

Galacio said his law firm would also represent the central bank in two other criminal complaints that it filed on Jan. 5 and Feb. 6 against several Legacy banks.

He said they would pin down De los Angeles based on the evidence gathered so far.

“There are several people involved in this latest scheme we have uncovered,” he said.

“You will be surprised at how extensive and elaborate their schemes are.” Ferdinand Fabella and Eileen A. Mencias