Law office to cooperate in probe on Pagcor audit

MANILA, Philippines — A law office in Pasig City representing Soleil Chartered Bank of New York (SCBNY) has declared willingness to cooperate with the Philippine government in any investigation concerning the auditing consortium hired by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) to review the contracts of Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs).

Lawyer Elpidio Soriano III said the Soriano Belmonte & Partners Law Offices will cooperate in any probe in order to clear the reputation of its client, SCBNY, which has been dragged into the controversy during a recent Senate hearing.

“Further, if the Philippine government or any of its department or instrumentalities would like to confirm SCBNY’s position on the matter, they can directly correspond with SCBNY through their official email address as published in the website,” Soriano said.

While sniffing out PAGCOR’s hiring of highly priced Global ComRCI, a third-party consortium that audits its contracts and transactions with POGOs, the Senate came across spurious documents that included a bank certification supposedly issued by SCBNY.

Soriano said SCBNY had earlier disowned that bank certification for a deposit of $25 million that was presented to the Senate by Global ComRCI, which has a contract with PAGCOR for P6 billion.

The disavowment issued by SCBNY has put Global ComRCI in hot water and exposed the auditing consortium to possible civil and criminal lawsuits from the New York-based bank.

Global ComRCI’s woes arose from recent investigations by the Senate committee on ways and means headed by Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian that looked at the country’s benefits from POGO operations in the context of the social cost dealt by the online gaming platform.

Gatchalian particularly grilled PAGCOR on Global ComRCI’s compliance with the P1-billion capital requirement to enter into such a highly priced contract with the state gaming firm.

It was at this point that PAGCOR’s legal counsel, Roderick Consolacion, presented a bank certificate purportedly issued by Soleil Chartered Bank (SCB) showing Global ComRCI’s $25-million deposit – equivalent to roughly P1.38 billion.

Further scrutiny by the Senate showed much lower capitalization of consortium-members – Global Myoho Renge at P29.9 million, Comfac Corp. at P341.7 million, and High-Web Trade which is based in Malta with only 240 pounds listed capital equivalent to about P13,920.

In a supposed attempt to mislead PAGCOR on its financial qualifications, Global also submitted a bank certificate amounting to $25 million ostensibly issued by Soleil Chartered Bank, Gatchalian said.

Consolacion conceded that Gatchalian’s findings should be sufficient grounds for the termination of Global ComRCI’s contract.

SCB’s business liaison, Ali Abbas, who came to Manila to shed light on Global ComRCI’s alleged involvement with his bank, vehemently denied allegations that SCBNY issued the questioned bank certificate dated June 15, 2017 in favor of Global ComRCI.

He also flatly rejected claims that Global ComRCI had a bank account with SCBNY.

He emphasized that the letterhead used in the fake bank certificate “is not the letterhead used by SCBNY.” He added that bank instruments issued by SCBNY do not indicate any Philippine address as it does not have an office in the Philippines.

Abbas raised serious questions on the authenticity of the bank certificate, including the document’s letterhead and the purported signature of the SCBNY chairman.

He said the dubious document “does not conform to the regulated banking form in New York whether for bank certificates or for bank guarantees.”

The SCBNY executive also asserted that his company does not directly issue bank instruments or guarantees to its clients.

In the case of Philippine applicants, the issuance of the bank instrument or guarantee is coursed through the state-owned Landbank of the Philippines or Development Bank of the Philippines.

SCBNY was dragged into the scandal after investigators disclosed that Soleil Capitale Corp. held office at 2704-A West Tower, Philippine Stock Exchange, Exchange Road, Ortigas Center, Pasig City which the SCBNY also reportedly occupied.

At a joint hearing of the Senate committees on ways and means, the lawmakers concluded that Global ComRCI was not suited to the task.

“Bottom line is based on the documents and all of that, the third-party auditor is not credible, not capable… not qualified,” Gatchalian said. “They do not even have simple things like (office) address and business permit so how do you expect us, the Filipino people, to believe that what they are supplying to us in the form of information is accurate?

“Like I said, it’s either you were tricked or allowed yourselves to be tricked,” he told PAGCOR officials at the Senate hearing.