“Able to refute all charges”
Michael Foxman, director of the Macau Securities Resource Group and a plaintiff in a criminal complaint filed by the Philippines Securities and Exchange Commission denies wrongdoing or the misleading of investors in the case of a casino resort planned by Calata Corp.
According to GGRAsia, Calata was involuntarily delisted from the Philippine Stock Exchange on November 3 for alleged multiple violations of disclosure rules. In a statement on the company’s website, Calata said it had not yet received a copy of the SEC complaint “and hence, cannot confirm nor deny the existence of said complaint as well as confirm or deny the truthfulness and veracity of said allegation.”
Calata added that it would “afford itself all remedies available under the law and to vindicate any right that has been violated.”
On November 8, the SEC filed the case with the country’s Department of Justice charging Foxman and Calata Corp. with market manipulation regarding its planned casino project on the island of Mactan in Cebu Province.
In August 2016, Calata was revealed to be an investor in the casino project in partnership with Sino-America Gaming Investment Group LLC and Macau Resources Group Ltd. Their plan was to establish a real estate investment trust for the investment, to be called Mactan Leisure City.
But in May of that same year, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. declined to grant a casino license to Mactan Leisure City because it did not meet the minimum land requirement of 50 hectares (123.6 acres), and in fact, fell far short of that minimum at 14 hectares, reported the Philippine Inquirer.
Nevertheless, in August Calata announced that Mactan Leisure City would likely receive regulatory approval by 2017 and open by 2020. The company’s stock price soared the day of the announcement, up 28.16 percent. The SEC contends that Calata intentionally misled would-be investors.
“It is unlawful for any person to make false or misleading statement … for the purpose of inducing the purchase or sale of any security listed or traded at the exchange,” said SEC Enforcement and Investor Protection Director Jose Aquino. “They made it appear as if there was still that plan” to operate a casino in Mactan.
Foxman was named as a party in the SEC’s complaint, according to ABS-CBN News. He is the CEO of RiskWise Global Capital Group LLC, which Calata said was in charge of “real estate development, project planning, financing, construction and ongoing activities” for a project on land held by Calata’s unit, Calata Land Inc.
In an email to GGRAsia, Foxman wrote that the project supporters “emphatically reject the claim that a letter was received by us advising the denial of our application” for a casino.
“We are able to refute any allegations and charges,” the email continued. “We have not been served or provided anything affirmative with regard to any charges.”
Foxman added, “We are committed to the Mactan Leisure City development project, for which the land remains unsold. We plan to self-finance with revenues derived from completing another project in our portfolio first.”
He also defended the chairman of Calata Corp., writing, “I can assure you that in my experience, Joseph Calata is one of the most trustworthy businessmen I’ve come to know in the Philippines.”
