DoJ upholds estafa raps vs former DFA chief 07/19/2010

DoJ upholds estafa raps vs former DFA chief

07/19/2010 The Department of Justice (DoJ) has upheld the filing of estafa charges against six officials of information technology firm Systems Standard Inc. (SSI), including former Foreign Affairs Secretary Roberto Romulo, over a dispute on a capital infusion made by the firm’s director Nora Bitong who owns 40 percent of the firm. The Office of the City Prosecutor of Makati City earlier had dismissed the estafa complaint against Augusto Lagman, Herman Gamboa, Cassius Ramirez, Romulo, Peter Valdes and Vimka Bernadette Pacis who were all SSI officers. The DoJ, in a resolution last June 17, reversed the dismissal of the case and ordered the Makati City Prosecutor’s Office to pursue the estafa case against the SSI officials. It also required the prosecutors office to report the progress of the actions taken on the case. According to the case filed by Bitong, the SSI officers in March 2005 unlawfully approved the sale of shares of stock of SSI to the Philippine Management Investment (Phinma) despite the knowledge that the sale constitutes all of the assets of SSI that required the ratification of the firm’s stockholders.  At a meeting of the SSI board of directors of Systems Standard on March 10, 2005, Lagman, SSI chairman and chief executive officer, informed the directors that he had been making cash advances to an affiliate technology firm Vinta Systems to finance its operations and that since the company did not have the financial capacity to return to him such cash advances, he requested that they be cohverted into equity in Vinta Systems and that he be granted pre-emptive rights over the unpaid subscriptions in the corporation in proportion to his equity after such conversion, according to the DoJ report.  Washington Sycip, a director of Systems Standard, asked respondent Lagman about any developments concerning Vinta Systems that would support his request.  Lagman replied that “there were no substantial developments” concerning Vinta Systems. Relying on the representation, the board of directors approved the requested conversion of his supposed cash advances into shares of stock. Bitong was absent from that meeting... MORE Source:  The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100719hed3.html

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