100 respondents named in new BW suit

Backed by the new government’s intensified crackdown on economic saboteurs, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) refiled yesterday with the Department of Justice the third version of the charge sheet laid out for over 100 individuals and stock brokers involved in the celebrated BW Resources trading scandal.

The SEC legal team from the Compliance and Enforcement Department submitted the complaint-affidavit against online bingo owner and close Estrada associate Dante Tan and a platoon of individual investors and officials of brokerage companies, financing firms and investment houses for trading violations that range from hyping the stock to availment of private placements.

Aside from Tan, other prominent individuals listed in the newest report include BW Resources president Eduardo Lim Jr., BW investor Jimmy Juan, Tan lawyer and BW corporate information officer Agnes Maranan, and officials of nine brokerage firms led by PCCI Securities and Brokers Corp.

The other brokers are A.T. de Castro Securities, Securities 2000, Abacus Securities, Solar Securities, Mandarin Securities, Angping & Associates, Larrgo Securities and Eastern Securities.

The third report also cited insurance and financing companies such as Industrial World Traders, Beneficial Life Insurance, Central Visayas Finance Corp., ICC Leasing Corp., International Capital Corp. and Philequity Fund for availing of private placement and pre-arranged transactions of BW stocks done through PCCI and Wealth Securities.

The SEC report said the evidence and documents so far gathered in the course of the investigation "show that there is sufficient basis to refer the matter to the Department of Justice for preliminary investigation."

Two earlier versions filed by the SEC failed to impress the DoJ as the latter dismissed the charges against most of those cited for lack of evidence, pursuing only the cases against Tan, Juan and Lim.

"We hope to put the case to rest," SEC Chairman Lilia Bautista said.

One of the SEC’s newest findings indicate that several entities – Tan, BW officials Lim, Maranan and PCCI officials, managing director Francisco Liboro and research head Gonzalo Bongolan, colluded in "hyping the stock," which involves the release of studies and news articles intended to pump up the stock’s value.

The other violations, on the other hand, have been cited in the previous reports: Wash sales, matched orders, cross trades, free riding and improper extension of credit, and abuse of the EQTrade facilities of the Philippine Clearing and Depository Corp.