A top Justice Department official has reportedly been offered a huge sum of money in exchange for not pursuing the cases against Celso de los Angeles Jr. and his Legacy group of companies. The amount was reportedly well into eight figures, but the Justice Department official turned down the offer.

Good for him. The last thing the Justice Department needs right now is to appear as if it lacks any interest in pursuing the cases of syndicated estafa, bribery and other serious charges that have been lodged against the embattled owner of Legacy?s string of failed preneed companies and banks.

Besides, after the embarrassment of the so-called ?Alabang Boys? bribery scandal, the Justice Department now has ?pardon the pun?a golden opportunity to redeem itself by going after De los Angeles. There?s no longer any reason not to prosecute, as one congressman noted yesterday, because the modus operandi of Legacy and De los Angeles? apparent involvement in every aspect of developing and implementing it have already been exposed.

According to Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, the cases have already been filed by the aggrieved parties, including no less than the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp., the Securities and Exchange Commission and several private investors fleeced by Legacy. ?Crimes have obviously been committed, the victims are numerous and what remains to be done is to prosecute the culprits and secure their conviction,? Lagman, in whose province De los Angeles also serves as town mayor, said.

But the justice official who is said to have been offered a bribe is lucky. At least he?s still being cajoled into not prosecuting the people who pulled off the Legacy scam.

Some employees of the PDIC who are gathering evidence against De los Angeles from the rural banks controlled by Legacy in the provinces aren?t so fortunate. Yesterday, PDIC vice president Imelda Singson said workers for the state-run deposit insurance company received death threats when they tried to find clues about the collapse of the Rural Bank of Carmen, which is part of the Legacy group.

The rural bank was placed under receivership by the PDIC to preserve its assets, with a view to later selling them to pay back depositors. The PDIC has filed fraud charges against De los Angeles and 20 other Legacy officials for allegedly using depositors? money for ?fraudulent, anomalous and irregular transactions.?

By the way, just because you didn?t invest or deposit any money in De los Angeles? bankrupt companies doesn?t mean you aren?t also footing the bill for the collapse of Legacy. Because the PDIC uses taxpayers? money to reimburse bank depositors of banks that have collapsed, we?re all going to have to take a hit, as well.

All the more reason why the Justice Department should act now on the cases filed against De los Angeles and his henchmen, no matter how big and attractive the bribe offers get.

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A professional basketball player recently sued a company which runs a string of shops that promised him four-percent monthly interest on his investment, without his ever working for it. The pro baller said he lost millions of pesos that were due him when the people who enticed him to invest simply refused to pay him his principal plus interest, amounts which were covered by worthless post-dated checks.

What more needs to be said about this case, except that famous quote about one being born every minute? As anyone who has ever invested any money or put up as business will tell you, you can?t ever get that rate of return by just sitting on your backside and watching your money grow.

Sure, investments do grow by that much and more, but that?s mostly when the investor himself runs his business, starting with a good product to sell, ensuring good service to take care of customers and doing all the other stuff that makes for a successful business. But even the best-laid business plans of the best people offering the best products sometimes don?t work out, so even that?s not a sure thing, either.

What?s certain is that no one ever got rich just sitting idly by, unless they inherited scandalous amounts of money. And that anyone who offers you a great return on your investment without you doing anything?or worse, if they just require you to recruit other people as investors, as well?is probably just perpetrating the age-old scam of separating a fool from his money.

It?s understandable when people without any knowledge or experience in investing?like the abovementioned basketball player?get ripped off by investment-scam artists. What?s truly unfortunate is when people who really should know better, who know how businesses are run and how investments grow, fall into the trap created by their own greed.

While we demand that government punish those who have inflicted such schemes on the ignorant and the greedy, most of the time, state intervention in such cases often comes too late. The best defense against such scammers is a basic knowledge of investing and tons and tons of caution.

Of course, it can be argued that the entire system of capitalism is based on greed and the seemingly unlimited supply of people who can be convinced to part with what money they have, in exchange for promises of profits that they will never, ever see. The global financial crisis, which started with Americans making money from homes they didn?t even own by selling them to investment houses that, in turn, made money by selling these to hedge funds and other investors, is proof that greed is not a local phenomenon.

The lesson is as simple as it is clear: Don?t fall for promises of tons of money that you never have to work for. The people who offer you a free lunch are the same ones who are already raiding your wallet to pay for it, and more.