DOJ orders filing of estafa charges vs. tuna canning firm execs

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has moved for the filing of criminal charges in court against several officials of listed canning firm Alliance Select Foods International Inc. for using the investments in the company to engage in supposedly illegal activities.

Justice Undersecretary Deo Marco, in a resolution, affirmed the finding of probable cause for estafa against Alliance Select chairman George Sycip, son of the late business tycoon and philanthropist Washington Sycip, and Alliance board of directors Jonathan Dee, Alvin Dee, Joanna Dee-Laurel, Teresita Ladanga, Grace Dogillo, and Arak Ratborihan.

The complaint was resolved in favor of Alliance stockholders Victory Fund Limited, Harvest All Investment Limited, and Bondeast Private Limited whose peso and dollar investments range from thousands to hundreds of millions of pesos.

According to the DOJ, the complainants were made to believe that investing in Alliance Select would be financially rewarding and that the company is "engaged in the manufacturing, canning, sale, importing, exporting of tuna and salmon and their expectancy for growth considering the promise for expansion."

“We agree that had not for the false pretenses in painting a ‘rosy picture’ of Alliance, employed by respondents Dee and George that their corporation has a lucrative business in the Philippines, as one of the tuna capitals of the world, has business enterprise in other countries and poised to further expand globally, they (complainants) would not have parted their money. Moreover, had complainants known that Alliance was formed to ‘bail out’ the Dee Companies, they would not have invested their money,” the March 27 resolution stated.

The DOJ, meanwhile, dismissed the charges for falsification of public documents and syndicated estafa for lack of probable cause. — BAP, GMA News