Court convicts 5 officers of lending firm for submitting forged documents — SEC

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said Monday it secured the conviction of five officers of lending company All-in 7,000 Lending and Trading Corp. for submitting falsified documents for registration.

It said that in a decision dated June 25, 2024, the Branch 47 of the Metropolitan Trial Court of Pasay City found Jerlie Singh, Erlinda Ocampo, Elaine Ocampo, Erwin Ocampo and Amarjit Singh guilty of violating Article 172(1) of the Revised Penal Code (RPC) on the falsification of public documents by a private individual.

The SEC filed a complaint against the incorporators, officers and stockholders of the lending firm after it found that they submitted a falsified document for their company registration.

Based on SEC’s investigation, All-in 7,000 submitted a certificate of bank deposit purportedly issued by Banco De Oro Pasay-Two Shopping Center Branch as part of its registration as a lending company with the commission in 2017 to prove that it has a paid-up capital of P1 million, as required by Republic Act No. 9474, or the Lending Company Regulation Act of 2007 (LCRA).

The SEC said that upon verification, it found that the submitted certificate of bank deposit was falsified and was not issued by the bank or the manager.

“The accused, knowing or having ought to know fully well that the bank certificate is a requirement, and that their corporation does not have the money to put up the same, their reliance on fixers to procure such certification necessarily negates their excuse or purported lack of knowledge over the falsification of the certificate of bank deposit, thereby making them liable for the act,” the court said.

This marks the third conviction secured by the SEC under the RPC, bringing the total of individuals convicted to 17. The SEC also scored 11 convictions for the violation of the LCRA, with 92 individuals convicted.

The SEC also cancelled the licenses of 39 financing/lending companies to date due to various violations of applicable rules and regulations. It also ordered 58 online lending applications to stop operations due to a lack of authority to operate as a lending or financing firm.

The SEC, through the Corporate Governance and Finance Department, has revoked the primary registration of 2,084 lending firms for non-compliance with the LCRA.