SEC poises criminal raps against Multitel owners

The Securities and Exchange Commission will file before the Department of Justice next week a criminal complaint against the owners and directors of Multinational Telecom Investors Corp. (Multitel) and other entities being used to perpetuate its alleged fraudulent activities.

This as it continued to receive complaints from numerous investors about being duped by Multitel, owned by spouses Saturnino and Rosario Baladjay. The company offers high interest payments in exchange for a P10,000 minimum investment in three to six months.

Jose Tomas Syquia, head of the SEC’s Compliance and Enforcement Department, said the Commission has been receiving complaints form various individuals claiming they have been victimized by Multitel and had been issued bouncing checks.

"We’re already preparing the complaint. We will file it next week," Syquia said.

However, he did not say how many investors have already formally filed a complaint against Multitel.

Earlier reports said over 500 investors had already file individual complaints with the SEC against Multitel. Investors include a group of doctors from St. Lukes Hospital, Manila Sanitarium and Jose Reyes Medical Center.

Syquia said the SEC has already asked the Bureau of Immigration to issue a hold-departure order against officers of Multitel who can no longer be located by investors. SEC sources said the couple might now be staying either in Bataan or Batangas. The BI, however, has yet to act on the SEC’s request.

The issuance of a hold-departure order, however, might be fasttracked as Sen. Loren Legarda herself requested the same to prevent owners and officers of Multitel from leaving the country and evading charges leveled against them.

Legarda was apparently irked by Multitel’s reported use of her photo and supposed message of endorsement in the promotional brochures the company had handed to prospective investors. The lady senator said she would never support any shady schemes.

Aside from Legarda, other well-known personalities used by Multitel in its investment brochures were Sen. Edgardo Angara and House Speaker Jose de Venecia.

Legarda said: "Perpetrators of investments fraud should not be allowed to escape with their loot. If the officers of Multitel have nothing to hide, then they should face their investors and open their books to investors."

She also blamed the proliferation of pseudo-investment practices like pyramiding and telemarketing fraud on the inability of government to crack down on scam artists. Legarda said the SEC and DTI seemed powerless in stopping the operations of pseudo-investment companies and urged the two government agencies not to pass the buck on each other whenever business scandals erupt.

The SEC earlier threatened to file contempt charges against officers of Multitel, and other conduit entities should they continue to sell investment contracts to the public in defiance of the cease-and-desist order issued against them.

To warn the public against unauthorized solicitation of investments, the SEC reiterated that the CDO issued against these firms since January this year has never been lifted and remains in force. The CDO was issued on the basis of findings that Multitel and others had been offering investment contracts without prior registration with the SEC.

The SEC has likewise issued a CDO against Multitel International Holdings Inc. (MIHI), another company being used by Multitel to continue its illegal sale of securities to the public. Most of Multitel’s placements and accounts were transferred to MIHI.

According to the SEC, MIHI, Everflow, Oneheart and Star have interlocking stockholders, directors and officers who are connected in one way or another to the management or operation of Multitel.

The modus operandi of these firms is to attract investors by offering as much as 15 percent guaranteed monthly interest for a minimum investment of P10,000 or "double-your-money" rate in case the investor opts to avail himself of the 18-month lock-in investment scheme.

SEC said MIHI, Everflow, Oneheart and Star have deceived the investing public by representing to their respective investors that they are legally authorized to solicit investments from the public and to enter into investment contracts, despite knowing fully well that the securities they offer are unregistered.

The SEC said the rigidity of securities registration requirements is intended to ensure full disclosure and to provide accurate information to investors.

To prevent the group from defrauding more investors, the SEC is considering revoking the respective corporate licenses of Multitel and its alleged conduit entities.

Other companies said to be used by Multitel in soliciting investments from the public and are covered by the CDO earlier issued by the SEC are Partners in Progress Holdings Inc., Sage Management Corp., CUP Multi-Purpose Cooperative Inc., Multilink Multi-Purpose Cooperative Inc., Oceanic Employees, Bethel Multi-Purpose Cooperative, Goodwill Development Cooperative, and Handog sa Pag-unlad Multi-Purpose Cooperative.

The investment scheme employed by these companies has been gaining popularity as an alternative source of income for thousands and thousands of Filipinos seeking to improve their plight.