PHILIPPINES: TELEMARKETING OPERATION: ARRESTS

English/Nat XFA Fourteen foreigners, from Britain, Canada, and the Czech Republic have been arrested by police in the Philippines as part of an investigation into a telemarketing operation. Police accused the 14 of working without permits when they were detained on Friday and accused their employer of running a telemarketing operation to fraudulently sell hundreds of thousands of dollars in stock to citizens of English-speaking nations. The suspects were brought to the Department of Justice in Manila on Monday, where an inquest was held for charges of violation of the securities code. They all refused to show their faces, hiding under blankets as they made their way inside the building. Their company, Mendez Prior Europe with an office in the Manila financial district of Makati, is under investigation for allegedly using telemarketing to sell stock that the company did not own, police said. Police said one victim, a South African furniture manufacturer, bought 135 thousand U-S dollars in stock from the company in 1999 and found out this month that it did not exist. He said people from several other countries had made similar complaints against the company. SOUNDBITE: (English) "What they do is they contact people and they try and sell them stock over the telephone and then they get the victims to send money to them, but they never actually purchased any stock. Instead they at least give the people a receipt and the victims think they have a stock account with a reputable brokerage firm. When in fact they're not licensed brokers, they don't purchase any stocks at all and they just trick their victims out of the money." SUPER CAPTION: Matthew McEvily, lawyer for complainant Police identified the British citizens as Grayson Buckley, James Fallon, Jeff Missenden, Jonathan Dodson, Matthew Carter, Derek Warner, Hannah Sutherland, Jevin Turpin, Christopher Copeland, Bruce Darcy Gabor Kaposy and Dionne Paulette Mclarty. The Canadian was identified as Martin Patrick Totton and the Czech as Helena Ciskova. One women, who was not carrying identification, was not identified. No hometowns or ages were immediately available. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/aff142a0de72a1a27f8b8e149728397b Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork