Ex-Defense officials helping fugitive tycoon set up gaming operations
Two former undersecretaries of the Department of National Defense have been helping fugitive gaming billionaire Calvin Ayre legitimize his online operations in the Philippines, according to the industry grapevine.
The two, Rodel Cruz and Aida Araceli Roxas-Rivera, had both served as undersecretaries to then Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz Jr.
The two are currently senior partners in the Cruz Marcelo Tenefrancia, the law firm organized by the former DND chief with former Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo and Arroyo-era chief presidential legal counsel Joe Nathan Tenefrancia.
According to the grapevine, Rodel Cruz had already met face-toface with the fugitive Canadian in Vancouver to discuss the prospects of his gaming operations in the Philippines amid the Duterte administration’s crackdown on online gambling.
But in the light of the Malacañang turnabout and Pagcor chairman Andrea Domingo’s pronouncement that online gambling targeting foreign players will henceforth also be permitted, Cruz has subsequently revised his proposal.
The CMT law firm is now proposing to Ayre that he relocate his undisclosed “support companies” in Antigua to a planned “Pagcor entertainment center” in the Philippines.
According to grapevine, Cruz and Roxas-Rivera are collaborating with an IT counsel, Christian Grant Tomas of the US-based Tyche Consulting, to prepare the information technology-related documentation needed for the Pagcor proposal.
“The minimum goal is to have the support companies here licensed by Pagcor and protected by authorities from harassment and extortion,” Cruz was quoted as telling Tomas.
Ayre’s call-center operations in the Philippines were raided in 2013 after the police claimed the company, Bodog Nation, had been engaged in providing poker and other online casino games to overseas players.
A Canadian who built one of the world’s biggest online gambling and sports betting empires, Ayre is wanted by US authorities for conspiracy to launder money and illegal gambling.
In defense, Bodog Nation said its call center and BPO operations in the Enterprise Center, RCBC Makati and Eton Center in Quezon City were all registered with and cleared by the Securities and Exchange Commission to provide backroom and fulfillment support for its overseas operations.
At the time of the raids, Bodog Nation said it had over 1,000 employees in the Philippines.
According to the grapevine, Cruz and Roxas-Rivera had already met with Domingo and other top officials of Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. to push their proposal to establish Ayre’s online-gaming operations within a specially-designated “Pagcor center.”
The proposal is apparently akin to the establishment of a PEZA building or an IT/technology park, which would hopefully prevent future police raids since such a center would also be classified as an export zone whose business operations are outside the supervision of the local City Hall and the police.
Money talks
• The New York Stock Exchange has failed to cancel the local trademark “NYSE” registered by a Chinoy couple in the Philippines.
The Intellectual Property Office ruled the contemplated business and products of the local NYSE – clothing apparel, footwear and accessories – are “so unrelated to even think that the petitioner (NY Stock Exchange) is producing such goods.”
• Four days after writing about the dismal government record in prosecuting drug cases, retired Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban the other week decided to take some money off the table, cashing out about P4.5 million in early Christmas bonus from the south-bound stock market.
Heard through the grapevine
The glitterati Manila House private club is tapping 30 investors who have no problem dropping P5 million each to raise P150 million in start-up capital.
It is not clear whether the target 30 would become the core preferred shareholders, since according to the prospectus being sent out by Manila House incorporator Ricco Ocampo, P200 million of the target P202 million capitalization would be classified as preferred shares.
The preferred shareholders in return are being promised to “realize their investment return by the end of the third year” of operations.
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