The Securities and Exchange Commission has intensified its crackdown against usurious lenders with the filing of criminal charges against 153 individuals, 67 of whom are Indians, citing falsification of documents, perjury and other violations of local lending regulations.
The corporate regulator is also set to blacklist all company service providers and facilitators which had aided these parties in obtaining fraudulent documents.
In a press statement on Monday, SEC Commissioner Emilio Aquino reported that the SEC Enforcement and Investor Protection Department (EIPD) had filed 18 criminal complaints at the City Prosecutor’s Office of Pasay City against the officers, directors, stockholders, agents and a number of John Does, connected with 18 lending firms.
The EIPD filed before the Office of the City Prosecutor of Pasay City on Monday a criminal action for falsification of public and commercial documents under Article 172 of the Revised Penal Code and violation of Section 12 (3) (a) of the Lending Company Regulatory Act of 2007 (Republic Act 9474) against the directors, officers, and stockholders of these lending firms.
The lending firms are:
7 Lions Lending Management Corp.
Amsuda Lending Corp.
(3) Bhati and Jogi and Swali Lending and Trading Corp.
(4) Dr. Verma Lending Corp.
(5) Maan & Bhaker Landing Inc.
(6) Manak Pur Lohara Lending Corp.
(7) Paramjit Harvinder Gold Lending Inc.
(8) Purewal and Rashpal Lending Inc.
(9) Divya and Kavita Lending Corporation
(10) Satguru Lending Corporation
(11) Sartaj Lending Inc.
(12) All In 7000 Lending and Trading Corp.
(13) Balak1008 Lending and Trading Inc.
(14) Star 77777 Lending and Trading Inc.
(15) Chardikla 786 Lending and Trading Inc.
(16) Naurasidhu55 Lending and Trading Corporation
(17) Phil 86 Gurunanak Lending and Trading Corp.
(18) X-Ceee86 Lending and Trading Inc.
The Lending Company Regulatory Act states that a lending company should be established
only as a corporation and that no lending company should conduct business unless granted an authority to operate by the SEC. Section 5 of this law also requires a minimum paid-in capital of P1 million.
The SEC, as administrator of said law, requires applicants-entities to submit a notarized bank certificate as proof of deposit of their paid-in capital. However, the SEC reported that its Company Registration and Monitoring Department – receiver and processor of applications for certificates of authority (CAs) – in the course of evaluating these applications, found it “disturbing” that a number of applications carried bank certificates bearing the stationery of one bank branch but signed by a bank representative of another branch.
The SEC unit also uncovered application documents having the same entries /contents of business plans with the same corrections appearing to be prepared or filed by one and the same person.
Furthermore, the SEC reported that applicants whose principal office addresses were outside Metro Manila submitted bank certificates of one and the same bank and branch located in Pasay City, Metro Manila.
Aquino said that after further inquiry and investigation by the EIPD, it was determined that the bank
certificates were fake and not issued by the subject bank at all.
“We will prosecute those submitting fake bank certificates. The SEC shall be the complainant. For sure the SEC was indeed misled by the bank certificates as proof of paid-in capital”, said Aquino.
For the fraud perpetrated in procuring their CAs, the SEC intends to revoke the certificates of incorporation or primary registration of these entities found to have submitted spurious documents.
“They have been given more than sufficient time to comply and the President himself has been vocal about riding the country of these entities engaged in illegal lending and we will end their illegal ways by revoking their primary registrations,” Aquino said.
“We also plan to blacklist all company service providers/facilitators who had a hand
in submitting these spurious documents,” he added.
Under the lending law, any person who knowingly and willingly make a false or misleading statement in documents will face a fine of not less than P10,000 but no more than P50,000 or imprisonment of not less than six months but not more than 10 years or both, at the discretion of the court.