Metro Manila, Philippines – Villar Land Holdings Corporation has been slapped with a criminal complaint after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said the company committed market manipulation, insider trading, and misleading disclosures.
The complaint was based on the SEC probe last year that found Villar Land’s public disclosure of its 2024 financial statements were released before the completion of the external audit.
The financial statements reported a “substantial increase” in total assets to P1.33 trillion and net income of P999.72 billion from P1.46 billion in the previous year, which Villar Land attributed to a revaluation of its real estate holdings.
The SEC filed the complaint with the Department of Justice on Friday, Jan. 30, naming as respondents Villar Land Chairman Manny Villar, former Sen. Cynthia Villar, directors Cynthia Javarez, Manuel Paolo Villar, and incumbent Senators Camille Villar and Mark Villar, and independent directors Ana Marie Pagsibigan and Garth Castañeda, according to a statement on Saturday, Jan. 31.
The commission said Villar Land, formerly Golden MV Holdings, allegedly violated Sections 24.1(d) and 26.3 of the Securities Regulation Code “for making false or misleading statements and engaging in acts that operated as fraud or deceit upon investors.”
The body also alleged that related entities Infra Holdings Corporation and MGS Construction, and their officers and authorized signatories Virgilio Villar, Josephine Bartolome, Jerry Navarrete, and Joy Fernandez violated Section 21.4(b) of the law, or the provision prohibiting price manipulation.
Infra Holdings is owned by Virgilio Villar, the brother of the former politician.
Regulators said the two related entities engaged in “trading activities that created artificial demand and supported the price of Villar Land shares.”
“In addition, the SEC alleged that Camille A. Villar engaged in insider trading when she purchased 73,600 shares of the company in December 2017, shortly before the release of a corporate disclosure that resulted in an increase in the company’s share price,” the commission said in its news release.
In November last year, Villar Land said in a disclosure that total assets amounted only to P35.7 billion, a sharp decrease from the earlier reported figure of over P1 trillion.
A day before that disclosure, the SEC revoked the accreditation of E-Value Phils. Inc. and imposed a penalty of P1 million for “unreliable and non-compliant” appraisal reports of three subsidiaries of the Villar Land group. These reports backed Villar Land’s asset revaluation.
In August last year, the SEC imposed on Villar Land a P12-million fine for late submissions of financial reports in 2024.
