By Ronnie Nathanielsz
The wife of Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao’s driver, Joseph Jose, who took the trusting boxing icon for a ride ,has been charged with one count of grand theft and 32 counts of forgery before the Los Angeles Superior Court.
The Contra Costa Times reported that 27 year old Pia Anatalia Quijada was accused of stealing more than $89,000 from the Wells Fargo, Sunset Boulevard bank account of Pacquiao.
Quijada pleaded “not guilty” to the charge that she had forged Pacquiao’s signature on 32 checks and cashed them beginning January 27, 2007.
Quijada who was arrested by the Los Angeles police last Monday is in jail because of her failure to post bail which was placed at $90,000.
Pacquiao who had earlier learned about the court appearance was busy shooting a new Alaxan commercial according to Team Pacquiao chief-of-staff Jake Joson.
Joson informed us that according to Pacquiao “the money he lost (through the forged checks) had not been returned to him by the bank neither did he know when it will be returned or whether it will be returned at all.”
Joson himself said Pacquiao’s driver had claimed he had separated from his wife although insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports earlier learned that the driver suddenly appeared to be wearing signature shoes, a new watch and other fancy items during the period of the alleged theft by his second wife.
The systematic siphoning of funds from a $200,000 deposit made in December 2006 and which Pacquiao had apparently forgotten about broke during Pacquiao’s training for his March 15 rematch with Juan Manuel Marquez from whom he won the WBC super featherweight title via a split decision.
When he opened the account Pacquiao was accompanied to the bank by Jose and his wife and used the couples Los Angeles address which resulted in all checks and other bank account information being sent to that address.
Insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports learned that Quijada started issuing pay-to-cash checks in small amounts of $300 and gradually increased the amounts until she averaged between $11,000 to $12,000 a month.
Pia also transferred some $40,000 from Pacquiao’s Sunset Boulevard account to to a newly-opened account in Wells Fargo, Burbank.
Pacquiao adviser Michael Koncz discovered the caper when he received a call from the assistant vice president of the Wells Fargo branch in Hollywood , Vilma Rodriguez, inquiring whether Pacquiao still remembered he had an account with the bank. Koncz called Pacquiao who said he had forgotten about it and immediately went to the bank and discovered that only $19,000 remained in his account.
Former outstanding PBA import Francois Wise confirmed in a telephone conversation with at that time that Pacquiao had gone to the LA station at Venice and LaBrea and filed a complaint.
Fed up over individuals who took advantage of her husband’s kindness and generosity and propensity to forgive those who wronged him, Pacquiao’s wife Jinkee had told him she wanted Pia jailed and to be taught a lesson even as she asked Manny to be careful because people were “taking advantage of his kindness and his penchant to forgive because of his soft heart.”
