JOSEPH H. Calata, chairman of Calata Corp., said he will file a case against the troubled firm’s minority investor Alfred Reiterer and asked authorities to investigate the businessman.
Reiterer, an Austrian national, has been the most vocal critic of the company since it has been delisted last year by the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), for violating exchange rules like trading on undisclosed corporate developments.
Calata said he will file a number of criminal charges will be filed against Reiterer, whom the company said does not own a single share in Calata Corp. and has no legal basis for him to claim or designate himself as representatives of the minority shareholders of the company.
“The company is also in coordination with the National Bureau of Investigation [NBI] and the Bureau of Immigration to investigate Reiterer and all his disruptive and/or illegal acts in the country,” he added.
“In response, the NBI has already commenced verification proceedings and has already established direct communications with Calata Corp. in the view of discussing in detail how to proceed,” it added. “It is expected that, in the very near future, Reiterer shall be invited for questioning in at least these two government offices.”
Speaking out
REITERER has taken the lead to speak as one of the Calata minority shareholders who were affected by the company’s delisting, asking the company to buy back the holdings of the shareholders at its book value of P3.06 prior to the delisting.
“I have bought 6,000 shares from one minority shareholder at P3.06. The selling shareholder was [Ms.] Annie Perez,” he said.
Reiterer then brought to the regulators’ attention an initial coin offering (ICO) being conducted by a company being linked to Calata.
Reiterer has denied Calata’s accusations against him.
Calata also accused Reiterer of being in the country “supposedly as a tourist and not a businessman but is, instead, using his presence in the Philippines to attack Filipino businesses.”
“This is clearly a misrepresentation and abuse of his entry to the country,” it said. “Further, please be advised that, in the coming weeks, additional criminal, civil and administrative cases shall be filed against Reiterer as a result of a continuous and thorough investigation against him and his disruptive and/or illegal actions against Calata Corp., Black Cell Technology Ltd. and also against Joseph H. Calata, who remains firm in not giving in to Reiterer’s unlawful threats and acts of harassment, which are obviously aimed for his personal benefit and other inconceivably suspicious motive.”
Allegations
CALATA accused Reiterer of maligning Krops, which the eponymous company said is a business totally unrelated to it while also being led by the businessman himself.
The coin offering involves Black Cell Technology Ltd., a firm that operates the agriculture-related mobile application Krops and shares the same address with Calata. That firm is offering to the public 6.4 million tokens priced at 0.00105 etherium coins—one of the cryptocurrencies available to the public—or at $0.70 apiece.
Calata earlier launched Krops in the Philippines.
“The Krops business has been helping Filipino farmers gain better market access for their products. Our only desire for this company is to grow it and make it a global agricultural market place to help more farmers,” the company said. “To date, we have helped over 6,000 farmers, some of whom, have had no market access for their products.”
In his response, Reiterer said he never maligned Krops but admitted he has asked the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on the legality of the initial coin offer of the company.
“I have informed the Securities and Futures Commission on Hong Kong, too, which clearly told me that Blackcell Technologies has no license for an ICO,” Reiterer said in an e-mailed statement.
Reiterer explained that, because “Joseph Calata is currently advertising the ICO of Krops, it is legal for an investor to ask the relevant government agencies if there is a license or not.
“Since his ad has appeared not only in Philippine online media but also in Europe, it is normal that, as a concerned EU citizen, I have the right to ask the SECs in different European countries to investigate,” he added.
The critic
REITERER claims he holds a number of investments in several listed companies and that he has been communicating with the European Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines after he was invited to invest in the Philippines.
“I believe that my investment decision will be finalized in the first quarter of 2018, and the investment will be registered with the Board of Investment,” he said. “Together with other foreign investors, I had been looking into Calata Corp. in 2017 and an investment did not materialize because the severe violations of Joseph Calata resulted in the delisting of the company.”
Reiterer is also straightforward with the nationality issue.
“It is correct that I am not a Filipino, and I have never claimed to be a Filipino. But I have attracted the Philippines to a lot of foreign investors who have been contributing with their investments to create jobs in the Philippines,” he said. “I believe in the agenda of the current administration to go against corruption, and I am confident that the truth will always prevail, and I hope that Joseph Calata will compensate his shareholders who suffer because of his wrongdoings, which led to the delisting of Calata and the criminal case filed against him and the Board of Directors by the SEC,” Reiterer added.
Backstories
A few months after its listing at the PSE sometime in 2012, Calata Corp. was subject of an insider trading and price-manipulation investigation by both the PSE and the SEC.
The SEC filed a complaint with the Department of Justice (DOJ) against several individuals alleged to have participated in the trading of the firm’s shares with the aim to push up the stock price.
Years later, the DOJ has yet to file criminal charges against these individuals.
Recently, Calata Corp.’s principal shareholder and Chairman Joseph Calata sold large chunks of his stake in the company, resulting in his ownership of just a minority interest, but failed to disclose this to the PSE and blamed a staff for literally filing away the disclosure instead of filing it with the PSE.
Reiterer has expressed willingness to clarify every allegation leveled against him.
“I am very willing to challenge all malicious and wrong accusations with the relevant government agencies and will visit the NBI and Bureau of Immigration next week together with my lawyer to verify if and what cases have been filed,” he said.