Friday, February 29, 2008 Ateneo law teacher charged
AN ATENEO law school professor was charged with two counts of falsification of documents for supposedly claiming to be the corporate secretary of a mobile telecommunications firm based in Makati City.
Lawyer Michael Aguinaldo was charged by the Makati Prosecutors Office based on the complaint of mobile content provider Information Gateway, Inc. (IGI).
First Assistant City Prosecutor Romulo Nanola, who conducted the preliminary investigation of the IGI's complaint, ruled that there is probable cause to charge Aguinaldo for falsifying the company's Secretary's Certificates.
"This Office believes that the defenses raised by the respondent are matters which should better be threshed out in a full blown trial on the merits in court," Nanola said in a resolution.
One of the complainants, IGI board member Rico Antonio Gonzales, said Aguinaldo sent separate letters to three banks on June 28, 2007 informing them that IGI's board of directors held a meeting the day before and passed a resolution changing the designated authorized signatories to the company's bank accounts.
Aguinaldo allegedly told the banks that the changing of the authorized signatories is in line with the supposed centralization of bank mandates of all the subsidiaries of Upper Mobile, Ltd., IGI's parent company.
The complaint stated that the respondent attached Secretary's Certificates that he executed as the supposed corporate secretary of the IGI.
But Gonzales and co-complainant Reynaldo Robles, the recognized corporate secretary of the firm, alleged that they did not receive any notice for a special meeting on such date and that there is nothing in the corporate records that such meeting ever took place.
The complainants said Aguinaldo committed criminal offense "by causing it to appear that he participated in any act or proceeding when he did not so in fact participate, and by making untruthful statements in a narration of fact" in a bid to "wrest control" of the IGI and defraud the board of directors.
Aguinaldo, in his counter-affidavit, said his law firm, the Romulo Mabanta Buenaventura Sayoc and Delos Reyes Angeles Law Office, which is assigned to handle the account of La Netro Zed, a Spanish firm, made him as one of the stockholders of the IGI.
He claimed that La Netro Zed owns 66 percent of UK-based firm Monstermob Group Plc., which in turn owns 100 percent of Upper Mobile Ltd., the company that owns IGI.
Aguinaldo said Wong Sho Sien, La Netro Zed's regional director, assigned him one share of stock so he could qualify as nominee director of Upper Mobile Ltd in the Board of Directors of IGI.
The prosecutor, however, ruled in favor of the complainants, who presented documents showing that a corporation named Dragon Impact Assts. Ltd. (Dial) actually owns the Upper Mobile, Inc.
Dial has bought out Monstermob's holdings on Upper Mobile Ltd. in March 2005.
"This Office takes notice of the undisputed fact that the respondent is a practicing lawyer from a well-known law office. He, therefore, should know the falsity of the statements contained in the two Secretary's Certificates which he had subscribed and sworn to before a Notary Public," Nanola pointed out in approving the filing of criminal charges against Aguinaldo. (AH/Sunnex)
