Fraudsters who allegedly siphoned off millions of dollars...

Fraudsters who allegedly siphoned off millions of dollars in tax payments in the Philippines can expect harsh penalties, possibly even the death sentence, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said.
Arroyo said one man, Artemio San Juan, had already been arrested and would be charged with "plunder", which carries a possible death sentence. Other suspects in the massive tax scam, which saw some 205 million pesos (3.98 million dollars) in tax payments diverted to private accounts, are still at large, she said.
Arroyo called for a full investigation into the scam, adding that "the republic will seek the maximum penalty against these economic saboteurs."
White collar crime such as economic plunder has been at the top of the Philippine leader's anti-crime agenda along with drugs and kidnappings. Under local law, plunder refers to graft involving more than 50 million pesos and is punishable by death.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue uncovered the tax fraud when certain unnamed corporations were investigated for supposedly not paying taxes. The companies were however able to produce receipts from the state-owned Land Bank of the Philippines, showing they had paid their taxes.
It was later found that these receipts had been falsified and that certain bank employees had diverted the tax payments to individual bank accounts.