14 hours Ago By Max Limpag
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rapplerAds.displayAd( "mobile-middle-1" );CEBU, Philippines – Michael Cris Traya Sordilla, who was arrested in the United States in December 2024 for allegedly operating a book publishing scam, said through his lawyer, Oliver Baclay Jr., on Friday, April 11, that his company’s sales agents were to blame for the fraudulent transactions in his company.
Sordilla, president and chief executive officer of Innocentrix Philippines, “denies and vehemently denies any and all criminal liability,” Baclay said in a press conference.Sordilla, his co-official at Innocentrix Bryan Navales Tarosa, and US-based Gemma Traya Austin were arrested over allegations of defrauding elderly authors of almost $44 million or more than P2.5 billion.
They are linked to the PageTurner operations that United States federal authorities said were involved in fraud. Austin is Sordilla’s aunt and the listed US-based agent of PageTurner. The PageTurner operations allegedly defrauded more than 800 identified authors.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation said agents working for Innocentrix — a business process outsourcing company based in Mandaue City in Cebu — were the ones who contacted the authors in the US. The allegations covered incidents from September 2017 and December 2024.Must Read Cebu becomes a hub for scam targeting self-published authors in the US “All the accusations that were stated in the (US Department of Justice) website and later carried by various news outlets were the actions of sales agents who acted without authority, acted beyond their authority, or accessed the IT infrastructure of Innocentrix without authorization,” Baclay added.
According to the complaints, PageTurner and Innocentrix allegedly posed as literary agents and movie studio executives pretending to be interested in republishing or adapting works of the authors, provided that they pay for services.The legal counsel disclosed that they have the names of the agents involved in unauthorized transactions but clarified that there were “two main actors” behind it.Baclay explained that Innocentrix had “very strong policies” against fraud but was unable to implement the same during the COVID-19 lockdowns, when employees worked from home.
He pointed out that the accusations against the company were over incidents in 2019, 2020, and 2021 —lockdown years when many companies instituted work-from-home setups.All three of the accused were denied bail during the hearing, according to Baclay, because the court was told “we cannot allow this man to go because he is very powerful in the Philippines,” which Baclay dismissed as untrue.window.
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displayAd( "mobile-middle-2" );HOPING. Families and friends of Michael Sordilla and Bryan Tarosa, executives of Innocentrix Philippines, a Cebu-based business process outsourcing company, attend a press conference at a hotel in Cebu City on April 11, 2025.Scam tactics?When asked how the agents were able to process the payments to the company bank accounts, Baclay said that what they deemed unauthorized happened during the agents’ interactions with the authors and not in the collection of the payments.
The legal counsel added these rogue agents “will promise the moon, the sun, and the stars” to the writers just to close sales.Baclay clarified that the reason why Innocentrix mostly dealt with elderly authors was due to the fact that the latter had more writing experiences and interesting stories for publication, in contrast to claims that they were preying on “feeble-minded” older folk. “But the process from self-publication, nag-post ka nang ganyan para ‘yan maging (what you posed can be turned into a) movie, for example, or maging (becomes an) article in a major magazine takes a lot of time, effort, money, and resources, so doon po nag–bi-bridge nang gap ‘yung Innocentrix (that’s where Innocentrix bridges the gap),” he said.
The legal counsel announced that friends and family of Sordilla and Tarosa have started efforts to have the two brought back to the Philippines. They have sought the assistance of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to bring the two home.
Baclay said the DFA has several options in bringing them home, saying they can do “executive side negotiation” with US authorities.The lawyer also explained that in the US, the prosecutor has a big role in how the case moves, and can drop the case. He also said that 90% of cases don’t go to trial because they are “settled by some form of plea bargaining.
”When asked by Rappler in an interview if they are considering plea bargaining, he said “I can’t answer that.”Baclay was able to meet Sordilla in detention on February 5. He claimed that Sordilla and Tarosa were not read their Miranda rights at the time of the arrest.
He also said the two were unaware of the cases when they decided to fly to the US as tourists in 2024. If they really were scamming, the lawyer said, they would have stayed away.window.
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displayAd( "mobile-middle-3" );What may have increased the suspicion of federal agents, Baclay said, was the number of smartphones Sordilla brought with him that he claimed were supposed to be “giveaways” for Innocentrix employees.Sordilla’s pre-trial on February 14 was rescheduled to the first week of May.In the press conference, organizers presented video and in-person testimonials by published authors, friends, and colleagues who vouched for the character of Sordilla and Tarosa.
There was no testimonial from any former co-worker of Innocentrix, but Baclay said it could be arranged.NO FRAUD? A published author delivers a message of support, citing their own experience as proof of fulfillment, during a press conference on the repatriation of Michael Sordilla and Bryan Tarosa, executives from Innocentrix Philippines, a Cebu-based business process outsourcing company, at a hotel in Cebu City on April 11, 2025. Sordilla and Tarosa were arrested in San Diego, California, on December 9, 2024, for alleged involvement in a fraudulent scheme that defrauded over 800 authors, primarily elderly individuals in the United States, of nearly $44 million (approximately ₱2.
5 billion).While Innocentrix is no longer operating, it could not be legally closed because it is a One Person Corporation and would need a resolution from Sordilla for any company action. – Rappler.
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