Jimenez family feud worsens, Mark sues own children

Convicted former Manila representative Mark Jimenez yesterday waged a war, not only with his wife Caroline, but with his three children whom he accused of selling his holdings in a telecommunications firm without his consent. Edgar Francisco, counsel for Jimenez, alias Mario Crespo, filed a complaint for estafa through falsification at the Makati City Prosecutor's Office against complainant's children Myla, Virgilio and Marcel Crespo. Jimenez, through his lawyer, also asked the Department of Justice to put the three respondents and Myla's husband, Generoso Villanueva, under the Bureau of Immigration's watch list. In his complaint, Jimenez claimed that his three children illegally sold his majority stake in Meridian Telekoms for $45 million. The company is an internet broadband service to Smart Communications Inc., owned by businessman Manuel Pangilinan, Jimenez said he was the beneficial owner of Meridian which he bought from Victor "Vic-Vic" Villavicencio in 1999 for P14 million. He subsequently added fresh capital from different sources totaling to P325 million. Francisco said Jimenez only learned about it while he was serving a jail sentence in the United States from 2002 to 2005 for illegal campaign contributions to the reelection bid of former US President Bill Clinton. "The actions of Marcel Crespo and Myla Villanueva of continuous deceit for two years was an inhuman act perpetuated against me, their father said in the complaint. He added that the respondents were able to convince Pangilinan that they had Jimenez's full approval to execute the sale. "Mr. Pangilinan was duped into believing their continuous fraudulent, deceitful and premeditated actions, and therefore agreed to purchase Meridian Telekoms, Inc.," he said. He claimed that his children and son-in-law falsified documents such as general information sheets, stock certificates, purchase and sale documents to make it appear that they were co-owners of the company. Former officials of the Meridian also executed their affidavits to support the complaint of Jimenez. Respondents used the proceeds of the sale of Meridian to put up trust for their family members and to boost their personal accounts, said Jimenez's lawyer. "When I got back to the Philippines, I immediately summoned my children and they were, even with impunity, proud to say that they sold Meridian Telekoms, Inc. to Smart Communications, despite lack of knowledge and approval from me, and worse, they refused to turn over the proceeds of the sale to me being the beneficial owner of all the shares of the company," Jimenez said in his complaint. Francisco further told reporters that Jimenez's three children were also behind the move of Caroline to seek a protection order from a Makati court against the former lawmaker. The former solon noted that Myla even duped his wife into pawning her jewelry worth millions of pesos allegedly to raise money for his bail. But, Jimenez said, he found out that his daughter just used the jewelry for public display. Jimenez, then Presidential Adviser for Latin American Affairs, was once dubbed by ousted President Joseph Estrada as a "corporate genius for brokering several multi-million peso deals, like the alleged anomalous $470-million deal with the Argentinian firm IMPSA (Industrias Metalurgicas Pescarmona, SA). The IMPSA deal was supposedly for the rehabilitation of the 750-megawatt Caliraya-Botocan-Kalayaan power plant in Laguna. - GMANews.TV