BW exec, 7 others face raps

Former presidential crony Dante Tan and seven of his alleged cohorts face additional charges after prosecutors of the Department of Justice found them liable for their manipulation of the stock market in October 1999.

Justice Secretary Hernando Perez, Undersecretary Manuel Teehankee and Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuño announced to reporters the prosecutors’ findings, and said the new charges will most likely be filed Monday.

The panel, led by Assistant Chief State Prosecutor Nilo Mariano, with State Prosecutors Susan Dacanay, Edna Valenzuela and Gregorio Arizola as members, "modified" the charges they filed in December 2000 at the sala of Pasig Judge Briccio Ygaña.

They said that apart from "engaging in a manipulative device (squeezing the market float)," a violation of the Revised Securities Act, Tan was also criminally liable for "wash sales, matched orders, marking the close and abuse of EQ trade facility."

A P1 million bail for each charge was recommended for Tan –an ally of deposed President Joseph Estrada and majority stockholder of BW Resources –along with the seven others who investigators said had caused the near collapse of the stock market.

The seven are Raul de Castro of AT de Castro Securities, Federico Galang of PCCI Securities, Eduardo Co of Aurora Securities, Jimmy and Mario Juan, Hermogenes Ladarran and Eduardo Lim.

BW minority stockholder Jimmy Juan was earlier indicted for "non-disclosure" while Lim was sued for "violation of the broker-director rule," he being an official of BW and Belson Securities Inc.

The panel of prosecutors had recommended a P120,000 bail for Tan’s charges and a P40,000 bail each set for Juan and Lim. Each violation carries a maximum prison term of 21 years.

The Mariano panel earlier dismissed the charges of wash sales, insider trading, matched orders, abuse in the use of private placements, equity trade and done-through-transaction due to "insufficient evidence" submitted by the Securities and Exchange Commission.