Dante Tan seeks CA intervention

Dante Tan, the beleaguered majority stockholder of Best World Resources Corp., asked the Court of Appeals (CA) yesterday to stop the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from filing its criminal complaint against him for alleged insider trading and stock price manipulation.

The presidential friend also asked the appellate court to prevent the SEC's Prosecution and Enforcement Division from referring or endorsing "prematurely" the suit to the Department of Justice, which will conduct the preliminary investigation.

"The undue haste by which the investigation was concluded and prosecution commenced, despite the voluminous documents and transactions concerned, only shows that the proceedings are sham and that respondents (Yasay, SEC-PED) have decided that petitioner (Tan) is guilty of the charges against him," Tan said.

Tan said SEC Chairman Perfecto Yasay has already prejudged the case and is hellbent on nailing him down on charges of price manipulation and insider trading, even if the rules and regulations governing SEC investigations have not been complied with.

"For reasons known only to Yasay, all he needed from the PSE was a half-baked preliminary report implicating petitioner (Tan). As early as then, it is clear that Yasay could not be shaken from his obvious resolve that petitioner (Tan) was guilty of price manipulation necessitating swift enforcement action," the 26-page petition read.

Aside from being "singled out," Tan also complained he was not accorded his right to be informed and rebut the charges against him, and that he had been subjected to unfair media criticism.

"The investigation against petitioner (Tan) has been carried out in the briskest of steps. The PED had totally surrendered its power to Chairman Yasay. Due process contemplates not only the right to be heard but also the right to be heard by an impartial tribunal so much so that the absence of the latter will render the former illusory," he noted.

One instance where Yasay showed his obvious bias against him, Tan pointed out, was when he directed the PSE on Nov. 3 last year to turn over to him not later than Nov. 4 the "results and report of your investigation so that the SEC may immediately validate the same and take on swift enforcement action."

Tan argued that the SEC chief "interfered" in the PSE's own probe by directing it to submit the report of the Compliance and Surveillance Group (CSG) headed by lawyer Ruben Almadro, "without awaiting the official report of the PSE."

Not only this, he stressed Yasay "usurped the power and prerogative" of his own PED unit, headed by lawyer Ruben Ladia, and that he "obviously did not care less if the report of the PSE were complete or accurate."

"Regardless of the outcome of the PSE investigation, Yasay early on was bent on taking enforcement action. This fact is clear from the account of Almadro," he revealed, citing as basis Almadro's Feb. 11 report.

Tan also divulged that 10 days after the submission of the Almadro report, the PED issued an order finding that there is "probable reason" to believe that he, along with several other brokers, were guilty of the charges.