A local partner who got wind of the sale, began to sniff around. He asked the company's auditors who then discovered the amounts of the missing sale in their company financial statements. The fact was--the sale was unreported. Yet, several documents were secured and prove that the sale was indeed consummated.
Sensing something wrong, the local partner then asked their foreign counterparts for a drink. During the socials, the local partner managed to ask the foreigners where they deposited the monies.
In a state of inebriation, one of the foreigners admitted sending some monies to a country known as a haven of terrorist activities. Instead of being remitted back to the Philippines, the monies were deposited to an account in Singapore (where the shell company is reportedly based) which were then sent or remitted to various locations.
The local partner got scared. A heated argument then began within the company. One of the foreigners threatened the local partners with bodily harm. The foreigner even bragged that he, and his group are affiliated with Dawood Ibrahim, a known Al Qaeda leader. The Dawood group is reportedly linked with another mining firm based in India.
A series of letter correspondences were sent to the alleged headquarters of the firm in Singapore. These got unanswered. The local partners had no choice but file criminal charges against their foreign counterparts, fearful that they are just being used as local dummies in this clear case of money laundering.
Worse, inspite of the stoppage of mining operations, monies still continue to be deposited in Philippine accounts and withdrawn all at the same day. A very small amount of monies are just "banked" in the Philippines to pay off some obligations, but a huge chunk of these financial obligations which now run in the millions of pesos, remains unpaid.
As defense, the group hired a big time law firm to ensure that their activities are protected in the Philippines. They even floated the idea that all of these are just part of a corporate dispute or inter-company rivalry, when, in truth and in fact, the dispute only began when the foreign group failed to account for the missing US$ 6 million funds!
The local partners also discovered that the foreign group managed to change the ownership structure of the firm, with about 92% of the firm's ownership owned by a foreigner, clearly a violation of Philippine securities law.
A lawyer of the local partner began a series of coordination with intelligence agencies. The US homeland security got wind of the information and interviewed one of the whistleblowers.
The lawyer informed Malacanan of the alleged terrorist and money laundering activities of the group in a letter sent to Executive secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr last January 12.
Question---with all these things happening, did the Bureau of Immigration acted? yes, they did. They sent one foreigner home but curiously, continues to entertain the petition of another one against deportation. They even found one guiltless, inspite of pending criminal and civil cases.
A source says the two remaining foreigners have a very strong backer---a big businessman based in Makati city. This businessman is reportedly funding the activities of the group, mainly for both religious and personal reasons. This businessman is the head of a big foreign funding group in the Philippines and counts as clients and friends from high places.
This explains why, inspite of a lack of a permanent visa and of the absence of any working permit, the two foreigners continue to stay and work in the Philippines as consultants. These are clear violations of Philippine immigration laws of which, unfortunately, remain out of the radar screens of the immigration agency here in the Philippines.
Immigration laws are very clear and subject to very simple interpretation---a foreigner who violates the laws of the Philippines is subject to investigation and possible deportation.
Probably the immigration bureau remains convinced that this is all an intra-corporate dispute, which essentially, it is. They however, failed to ask why is there such a dispute? Because these foreigners failed to account where the proceeds of the alleged sale went and local partners are now fearing for their lives because two of these foreigners admitted having links with an international threat group!
I'll write another update about this soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you very much for reading my blog. You inspired me. But if you intend to put your name "anonymous", better not comment at all. Thanks!