SMC wants former Indonesian partner jailed for qualified theft

The infrastructure unit of San Miguel Corp. wants a former business partner jailed for allegedly defrauding the conglomerate of P50 million as well as misrepresenting himself as the owner of a corporate acquisition target.

At the same time, the country’s largest conglomerate asked the Marikina City judge to recuse herself from hearing the case against the former partner, Indonesian businessman Shadik Wahono, noting her previous ruling against San Miguel in another legal dispute.

The infrastructure firm, San Miguel Holdings Corp. (SMHC), is asking the court to issue a nonbailable arrest warrant against Wahono and company for qualified theft.

He allegedly caused Citra Metro Manila Tollways Corp. (CMMTC)—which was jointly owned then by SMHC and Wahono—to make an unauthorized disbursement which he then used to incorporate another company called Citra Central Expressway Corp. (CCEC).

SMHC’s complaint said that the transfer of money was listed as a loan from CMMTC to Wahono’s PT Citra Lamtoro Gung Persad (CLGP), for the incorporation of CCEC.

Wahono subsequently entered into a separate partnership with SMHC for CCEC, to undertake the Skyway Stage 3 project. However, SMHC said it did not know that Wahono got the money from the jointly owned CMMTC to fund the establishment of CCEC.

According to SMHC, Wahono and his co-accused did not notify the CMMTC board and shareholders about the loan which, consequently, did not have board approval.

SMHC said that, because Wahono and company kept the unauthorized disbursement secret, it was duped into paying the Indonesian businessman and his partners the same amount of money that it illegally disbursed from CMMTC when SMHC subsequently bought into CCEC.

SMHC filed a separate criminal complaint for syndicated estafa against Wahono and company for misrepresenting that his company, PT Citra Lamtoro Gung Persada (CLGP), is the legal owner of CCEC shares acquired by SMHC.

Meanwhile, despite earlier findings by the Office of the City Prosecutor of Manila of probable cause to issue an arrest warrant against Wahono, Judge Alice C. Gutierrez of Marikina Regional Trial Court Branch 193 dismissed the prosecutor’s resolution that included information for qualified theft against all of the accused.

Gutierrez said “the court finds no probable cause for the issuance of warrant of arrest for qualified theft on the ground that they merely performed corporate acts when they transferred the amount from CMMTC to CCEC.”

SMHC, meanwhile, countered that Gutierrez’ ground for dismissal shows bias and ignorance of the law.

SMHC had filed a motion for reconsideration to set aside the judge’s order and issue a warrant of arrest against Wahono and company.