DOJ indicts Alliance Select execs on Corporation Code violation charges

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has indicted five officials of publicly listed Alliance Select Foods International Inc. for their refusal to allow certain shareholders to inspect the books of the company.

In a resolution promulgated by Acting Prosecutor General Jorge Catalan Jr., the DOJ indicted former Alliance president Jonathan Dee, incumbent chairman Antonio Pacis, vice chairman George Sycip, and board of directors members Marie Grace Vera-Cruz and Raymond See.

The officials were found to have violated Sections 74 and 75 in relation to Section 144 of the Corporation Code, which provides that records of business transactions of the company should be open to any stockholder.

This comes after Alliance shareholder Hedy Yap-Chua requested access to certain documents regarding the company's business operations, but was later told they needed to submit a signed Access Rules and Confidentiality Undertaking, which she found "stringent and restrictive."

"[T]he Access Rules and Confidentiality Undertaking which were repeatedly imposed as conditions in preventing the complainant and the shareholders in inspecting the corporate records, lead us to believe that the respondents refuse to accede to the right of the complainant to inspect the corporate records," the resolution read.

"Such refusal, therefore, satisfies the second element of the crime," it added.

The DOJ in April moved for the filing of estafa charges against several officials of Alliance Select for using the investments in the company to engage in supposedly illegal activities. — Jon Viktor D. Cabuenas/BM, GMA News