The Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, continued with its crackdown on financial scams as it recently secured the conviction of six officers from Manak Pur Lohara Lending Corp. for falsifying documents to support the company’s erroneous registration.

The Regional Trial Court of Pasay City, on 11 March, found Margie C. Minoza, Mylene R. Mariano-Galvez, Marchie R. Bandril, Luz G. Mejarito, Harpreet Singh Virk, and Kulwinder Singh guilty of breaking the Lending Company Regulation Act of 2007, or LCRA.

Each officer was sentenced to between six months and one year and six months in prison.

The SEC has secured a total of 11 convictions for violations of the LCRA — with 92 individuals convicted to date.

After finding that officers of the company submitted false statements in their application for the company’s incorporation, the SEC filed a criminal complaint against them

To comply with the minimum paid-up capital requirement of the LCRA, the group submitted a purported P1 million Certificate of Bank Deposit from the Banco de Oro-Two Shopping Center Branch in Pasay City.

The SEC, however, found that no such certificate was ever issued when it was verified with the bank. The commission later rejected the company’s application for registration as a lending company.

Any officer, employee or agent of a lending company who knowingly and willingly makes false or misleading statements in any application, report, or document required by law is subject to penalties under Section 12, paragraph 3(a) of the LCRA.

In their defense, the group claimed that they had enlisted the assistance of Nobelyn Cabeguin and Renelyn Domingo to facilitate their application with the SEC.

These service providers allegedly misled them into believing that the bank transactions and certificate of bank deposit they signed were genuine.

Short in action

However, the court found that the group failed to take appropriate legal action against the alleged service providers, and therefore could not substantiate their claim of being defrauded.

“Singh admitted that he did not file any case against Renylyn Domingo for falsely representing that she could facilitate their registration with the SEC for their lending business. Hence, [the group’s] uncorroborated allegation that they were duped by their alleged service provider has no leg to stand on,” the court held.

Additionally, SEC has obtained two judgments of conviction under the Revised Penal Code, resulting in the conviction of 12 individuals.

SEC also has canceled the licenses of 39 financing/lending companies due to various violations of rules and regulations.

Moreover, a total of 58 online lending applications have been ordered to cease operations for lacking the authority to operate as a lending or financing company.

Through its Corporate Governance and Finance Department, the SEC has also revoked the primary registration of 2,084 lending companies to date for non-compliance with the LCRA.