BIZ BUZZ: A complaint vs the dead

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is ramping up efforts against scammers, but it seems that in its zeal, it ended up going after dead men.

The corporate watchdog recently lodged a criminal complaint against more than 30 officers, employees and affiliates of millennial CEO Maria Francesca Tan’s MFT Group with the Department of Justice in an alleged investment scam case.

However, Tan revealed to Biz Buzz that two of those implicated in the SEC’s complaint have been dead for years, including her grandfather, Mario dela Fuente, and father, Eduardo Tan.

According to her, Eduardo died back in 2019, while Dela Fuente passed away more than a decade ago.

“They were criminally charged. It’s that painful,” Tan told Biz Buzz in an interview.

She pointed out that the SEC may have pulled names from various sources, including the website of affiliate The Foundry Ventures I Inc., of which Tan is the managing director and a shareholder.

Among those implicated in the SEC’s complaint were employees based locally and abroad whom Tan said were “just shocked” to have been included.

The case stemmed from complaints from supposed investors saying that the company has been falling behind on its payments.

But Tan clarified that the complaining parties were actually Foundry shareholders who sought financial assistance from creditors to help in jumpstarting the company’s operations.

“The agreement between the creditor and the Foundry shareholder [involved] just individuals. It’s a very simple loan agreement,” Tan said.

She also explained that the borrowers have been paying their dues on time since 2020, and that the supposed complainants started an online smear campaign against her companies.

The MFT Group is seeking to appeal the case with the Court of Appeals, noting that the SEC did not grant any requests for formal meetings and hearings prior to issuing a cease and desist order in January. Tan pointed out that if the SEC had communicated to them that the loans qualified as securities, then they would have registered these with the commission.

The regulator made the order permanent earlier this month, with the commission en banc denying for lack of merit the companies’ joint motion to lift the order.

We’re standing by to see if the MFT Group will take the case further to clear its name. Abangan! —Meg J. Adonis

Consing eats his words

The lavish “Houses That Sugar Built – An Intimate Portrait of Philippine Ancestral Homes” written by Gina Consing McAdam and Irish photographer Siobhan Doran took the local and international book world by storm when it hit the shelves last year.

Demand has been so good that US-based Oro Editions, which publishes a wide range of award-winning and critically acclaimed illustrated books specializing in architecture, urbanism, landscape and photography, is going for a second printing of the handsome, hardbound book.

And for the proverbial cherry on top, Doran won the top photography award for architecture during the Sony World Photography Awards that took place last week in London.

The Philippine Embassy in London congratulated Doran for winning the first prize in the Architecture and Design category for her series of photographs taken at the ancestral and historical mansions of Filipino sugar planters included in the book.

Happy for Doran is Ayala Corp. CEO Cezar P. Consing, who is not just proud of the fine writing by his sister but also the fact that the Yusay-Consing mansion in Iloilo – also known as the Molo Mansion – had been included in the book and the subject of Doran’s award-winning work.

Doran’s series of photographs called Sala Mayor (Living Room) bested almost 400,000 other images entered into the prestigious competition.

Consing admits to Biz Buzz that he had his concerns about the book project given the enormity of the challenge, but with the success of the book, he is more than happy to eat his words.

The mansion, among the most recognizable and photographed in the province had been sold by the family to the SM Group, which has generously opened it to the public. –– Tina Arceo-Dumlao