Citing fraud, SEC revokes firm’s registration

MANILA, Philippines—The Securities and Exchange Commission has revoked the registration of Talbot and Reese Inc. for fraud.

The company is currently under investigation for allegedly engaging in “boiler room” operations, or high-pressure tactics used by telemarketers to randomly sell securities, mostly promising lucrative returns over a short period of time.

The SEC said it found that the company had committed fraud when it procured its corporate registration.

According to a resolution approved by the SEC en banc last week, Talbot and Reese never occupied the office stated in its corporate registration. The corporate watchdog said this meant that the company had “no intention to conduct a legitimate business.”

Also, three of its incorporators used addresses that were nonexistent or fictitious, the SEC said.

The five Filipino incorporators of Reese and Talbot were identified as Talberto Santiago, Respicio Noellanosa, Jan William Moran, Liberty Santos and Woodnell Veliganio.

Santiago, Noellanosa and Veligiano used fictitious addresses.

“Respondent ostensibly used its principal office … in its dealings merely to give the impression of legitimacy of its operations to the investing public,” the SEC said in its resolution.

The controversy arose when the SEC received letters of complaint against Talbot and Reese from 2007 to 2008.

In April 2007, Tham Tze Wayn reported to the SEC that he was contacted by the company, which presented itself as a venture capitalist firm.

The complainant believed the call to be a scam after he was coaxed to invest in an initial public offering by a company called Tricoastal Oil and Gas Ltd. The complainant added that the return on investment was ridiculously high in a short period of time.

In June 2008, Dui Sian Ling of Singapore also lodged a complaint with SEC, claiming that he and his compatriots had been “conned” into investing close to $500,000 by the company.—Doris C. Dumlao