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THE telecom industry is still abuzz over the ongoing
legal dispute between Monstermob Group PLC and one of its former
associates in the Philippines Rico Gonzalez who is being accused by
the United Kingdom-based parent company of being involved in alleged
insider dealing.
According to Monstermob PLC,
there is an ongoing investigation being conducted by the Financial
Services Authority (FSA) on Gonzalez. The FSA is an independent body
that regulates the financial services industry in the United
Kingdom.
Monstermob (which was recently
bought by Spanish conglomerate Zed which plans to make the
Philippines its Asia-Pacific hub) alleges that Gonzalez used
privileged information as a Monstermob director in trading
Monstermob shares owned by Dragon Impact Asset Ltd., (DIAL), a
company owned by his wife, Nonon and her sister Elizabeth Coliangco-Tan.
DIAL is a British Virgin Island (BVI)
offshore company which owns Upper Mobile, another BVI offshore
company. Upper Mobile, in turn, owns Information Gateway—a
Philippine value-added service (VAS) provider company which is
engaged in providing content for mobile phones such as ringtones,
logos, wallpaper and applications through local telecom companies.
According to talk on the business
cocktail circuit, these transactions are claimed to have brought to
them a windfall estimated at $12.5 million.
But Gonzalez in turn has been
requesting Monstermob to show documented proof that the company is
indeed working with British regulators. We understand that his UK
attorneys have advised him that he is under no obligation to provide
information to anyone other than the relevant UK regulatory body,
and then only if asked.
Gonzalez has declared his
willingness to fully co-operate with any legitimate investigation by
UK regulators just as long as they contact him directly.
Late last year Information
Gateway was accused by one of its former senior executives of
pushing mobile phone content which surreptitiously siphoned pre-paid
loads from unsuspecting pre-paid phone subscribers—with hapless
pre-paid subscribers who are trying to economize supposedly charged
for these unwelcome text services.
The executive is then said to
have had to flee the country with her family to a location in Europe
after she claimed she was receiving death threats over her expose.
As to the pros and cons of this
matter, and how it will all turn out only time will tell.
But it does beg the question as
to whether businessman doing business here and abroad should be
monitored more closely by the relevant Philippine authorities not
only to provide safeguards, but more importantly with regard to any
tax liabilities which may emanate from repatriation to offshore
companies owned by Filipinos.
The Italian utility giant Terna,
that put in the only bid worth almost $4 billion, when TransCo was
on the auction block in December 2006 (the bid was then, curiously
declared a failed bid by PSALM) must be licking its wounds over an
expensive mistake it made the second time around when the power
transmitting company was up for bidding again in December last year.
It brought in as an adviser at a
handsome fee an Italian who had previously worked with the Asian
Development Bank in Manila and who managed to get on board the Terna
bandwagon by giving the impression he was an expert on the corporate
climate in the Philippines.
To cut a long story short,
despite the better advice given to the Italian company (including
from the Italian Embassy in Manila) it decided to follow the advice
of the former ADB guy and not partner with San Miguel.
Instead, acting on the wrong
advice of the Italian adviser, the Terna bid (or nonbid as it turned
out to be) disintegrated disastrously right at the end.
E-mail: bizzfizz_98@yahoo.com
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