THE Banking Commission is now looking into Pacific Nakon International Co.’s claim that it owns 52 percent of the bank’s shares.
“According to our various investigators, the sale of the shares is now under question,” Commerce Secretary and Banking Commissioner Fermin M. Atalig told Variety yesterday.
Pacific Nakon’s lawyer, George K. Wallace, in a letter to Atalig on June 17, said the firm now “owns and control” the bank after the transfer of shares from B. Douglas Montgomery.
Montgomery transferred his ownership of the shares to Pacific Nakon, which paid $3.2 million for it.
The lawyer for the bank, Rodney Jacob, did not return this report’s call yesterday.
Atalig, however, said it is still “premature” to say that the sale was “consummated.”
But Atalig admitted that the Banking Commission, during the incumbency of then Secretary Frankie B. Villanueva, “authorized and approved” the sale of the shares of the bank to Montgomery.
However, Atalig said Villanueva approved the sale based on the documents presented to him at that time.
He said the commission was still unaware of the bank’s financial condition.
“I think the former secretary of commerce did the right thing at the time given the information that was made available to him,” Atalig said.
He admitted, however, that Pacific Nakon’s claim “has complicated an already complex situation.”
Still, Atalig said Pacific Nakon’s claim will allow the government to determine what really happened between Montgomery who said he bought the shares of JLH Pacific Trust and the Calvos.
