Sons of Former Philippine Military Comptroller Charged with Bulk Cash Smuggling

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—Following an indictment by a federal grand jury in San Francisco, two sons of the former comptroller of the Armed Forces of the Philippines were arrested today, United States Attorney Joseph P. Russoniello announced.

The indictment, which was issued in December, charged Juan Paulo Depakakibo Garcia, of Pontiac, Mich., and Ian Carl Depakakibo Garcia of Las Vegas, Nev., with one count of conspiracy to commit bulk cash smuggling, and one count of bulk cash smuggling.  The grand jury also charged Juan Paulo Depakakibo Garcia with one count of failing to file a report on the import of monetary instruments and one count of making a false statement to a government agency.

Juan Paulo Depakakibo Garcia was arrested in Pontiac, and Ian Carl Depakakibo Garcia was arrested in Las Vegas. Both will be held in San Francisco to answer to the charges. The Garcias are the sons of Carlos Garcia, who recently was found guilty in the Philippines of perjury for misdeclaration of his assets and liabilities in 2000.

According to the indictment, in December, 2003, the two Garcia brothers smuggled $100,000 in United States currency into the United States from Manila, Philippines, concealed on their persons and in their luggage, and failed to declare the importation of this money. Carlos Garcia, his wife and three sons, including Juan Paulo and Ian Carl, are also facing plunder charges in the Philippines for allegedly amassing 303.27 million Philippine Pesos of ill-gotten wealth during former General Carlos Garcia’s active military service.

The maximum statutory penalty for each of the four counts in the indictment – conspiracy to commit bulk cash smuggling, bulk cash smuggling, failure to report the importation of monetary instruments and false statements to a government agency – are 5 years in prison, and a $250,000 fine.  The penalty for failure to declare the importation of monetary instruments increases to 10 years in prison if a defendant is convicted of this charge in addition to one of the other three charges in the indictment. Any sentence following conviction would be imposed by the court after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal statute governing the imposition of a sentence, 18 U.S.C. § 3553.

An indictment contains only allegations against an individual and, as with all defendants, the Garcias must be presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Candace Kelly is the Assistant U.S. Attorney who is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Rawaty Yim and Rosario Calderon. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the United States Customs and Border Protection, the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation and Department of Defense, Defense Criminal Investigative Service. 

Further Information:

Case #:CR 08-0888 PJH

A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney's Office's website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can.

Electronic court filings and further procedural and docket information are available at https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.

Judges' calendars with schedules for upcoming court hearings can be viewed on the court's website at www.cand.uscourts.gov.