DOJ imposes travel ban on Dante Tan, 7 others

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has slapped a temporary travel ban on former presidential crony Dante Tan and seven of his co-accused in the BW Resources stock manipulation scandal, Justice Secretary Hernando Perez said yesterday.

Tan, however, has yet to return to the Philippines after leaving for Hong Kong last year.

Perez told reporters in a briefing that Tan, a crony of jailed former President Joseph Estrada, and the seven others, who have been charged before a Pasig City regional trial court, were included in the watch list of the Bureau of Immigration.

"I have ordered the (BI) to include them in the watch list while we are awaiting for the issuance of a (hold-departure order) by the court," he said. Inclusion in the watch list, however, is not an absolute travel ban since this is just good for five days.

The order would prevent Tan, former president of the BW Resources Corp., from again leaving the country after he supposedly went missing when he left for a trip to Hong Kong last year.

The seven others in the watch list are Raul de Castro of A.T. de Castro Securities, Federico Galang of PCCI Securities, Eduardo Co of Aurora Securities, Jimmy and Mario Juan, Hermogenes Ladarran and Eduardo Lim.

Government lawyers charged Tan and the seven others on Monday for four violations of the Revised Securities Act.

The prosecutors recommended a P1-million bail for each of the eight who almost caused the collapse of the stock market in 1999 by manipulating BW shares.

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

Prosecutors, led by assistant chief state prosecutor Nilo Mariano, said each violation carries a maximum prison term of 21 years.

The Mariano panel also found prima facie evidence to indict the eight for "syndicated estafa," a non-bailable offense, but explained that this will be the subject of "further investigation."

"For employing such a fraudulent scheme that deceived legitimate investors in BW shares, they should be subjected to further investigation in order to determine and specify the damages suffered by the investing public," the prosecutors said in a resolution.

Tan and his co-accused, according to government lawyers, "tricked and deceived numerous investors into buying BW shares only to lose their investments, and which also caused damage to the stock market in general."

The prosecutors said they conspired to cause artificial stock sales that caused the price of BW shares to skyrocket by more than 5,000 percent from March to October 1999.

The stock plummeted, however, on the very day BW officials announced that Macau-based casino mogul Stanley Ho had taken a minority stake and had been elected chairman of the board.