THE Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has revoked the corporate registration of real estate firm Empire 999 Realty Corp. for engaging in illegal activities, operating without secondary licenses, and fraud.
The revocation order, dated July 6 and made public on July 9, came after the House of Representatives launched an investigation into reports that methamphetamine chloride, or shabu, worth P3.6 billion was seized in a warehouse owned by the company in Mexico, Pampanga.
The company’s incorporators — Willie Ong, Elaine Chua, Michelle S. Sy, Aiedy T. Yang, Jack T. Yang, Samson Guo Yang and Albert Valdez Sy — were said to be Chinese nationals and not Filipinos, according to the House inquiry.
“They own 55 percent of Empire 999 Realty Corporation, which is in direct violation of the constitutional limitation of the 60-40 equity,” Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, chairman of the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs, said last May.
Under Section 6 of Presidential Decree 902-A, “the commission has the power to suspend, or revoke, after proper notice and hearing, the franchise or certificate of registration or corporations … upon any grounds provided by law,” the SEC said.
These include “serious misrepresentation as to what the corporation can do or is doing to the great prejudice of or damage to the general public,” it added.
In its ruling, the SEC said Empire 999 violated Section 165 of the Revised Corporation Code (RCC) for fraudulent conduct of business, aside from also declaring a false principal address in its general information sheet (GIS) and annual financial statements (AFS).
The SEC also ruled that Empire 999’s incorporators “are hereby disqualified from being a trustee or director of a corporation for a period of five years from the date of this order, pursuant to Section 26 of the Revised Corporation Code of the Philippines.”
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