Atlantic, Gulf & Pacific (AGP) Group is in disarray after its senior officials – investment banker Augusto “Toby” Gan, and abogado Marie Antonette B. Quioge – resigned amid the widening probe into the corruption scandal involving its chairman and director Joseph Miller Sigelman.
A Babbler said Gan has reportedly quit as director of AG&P Industrial Manila and non-executive chairman of its Singapore-based parent parent, AG&P International.
Gan has been a director of AG&P since 2010 when Sigelman took over the century-old construction and engineering firm and rejigged it into an LNG import and distribution firm. He is a co-founder of the Delphi Group and a stockholder of Investment Capital Corp of the Philippines.
Babbler said Quioge – a partner of Romulo Mabanta Buenaventura Sayoc & De Los Angeles – has also resigned as general counsel and EVP of AG&P Tech (Singapore) Pte. amid rumors of a company purge.
Quioge – a valedictorian graduate of DLSU-FEU Law and MBA and Master Law holder from Columbia University – joined AG&P in 2017 together with Romulo senior partner Perry Pe (director of AG&P International and AG&P Manila).
It remains unclear whether Gan and Quioge resigned voluntarily or faced pressure to do so, as AG&P’s internal and external media representatives have not responded to queries regarding their departures.
Furthermore, AG&P has disabled its management section on its website, leaving questions unanswered about the status of its board and management team.
Bilyonaryo.com was the first to report Sigelman’s ouster from AG&P on July 31. Shareholders voted for the immediate removal of the American from the board.
AG&P’s foreign shareholders include Asiya, a Kuwait Investment Authority-affiliated fund; Osaka Gas (Japan’s second largest gas supplier), and JOIN (Japan Overseas Infrastructure Investment Corp, for Transport and Urban Development).
Two years ago, AG&P raised $200 million from Miami-headquartered private equity firm I Squared Capital, along with an additional $120 million in investments from Osaka Gas and JOIN for the firm’s project in India, which involves12 city gas distribution networks under AG&P Pratham.
Sigelman’s firing and the ongoing turmoil in the board and management have come amid rumors of serious misconduct allegedly committed by Sigelman in connivance with other AG&P officials. AG&P has yet to address these allegations.”
The former Goldman Sachs banker is no stranger to financial controversy.
Sigelman avoided prison because he admitted to conspiring with two other PetroTiger officials to offer bribes in order to win a $45 million contract from Colombia’s national oil company, Ecopetrol.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Sigelman was also accused of attempting to receive illegal payments while negotiating for the purchase of another company for PetroTiger. Some members of PetroTiger’s board of directors helped in financing this acquisition. In exchange for getting better terms for the company being purchased, two of its owners agreed to provide additional funds to the conspirators.
To conceal these payments, Sigelman and his group transferred the money to Sigelman’s bank account in the Philippines. They also fabricated a document to make these payments appear legitimate, and used the code name “Manila Split” for discussions.
Sigelman reportedly sent $260,000 of these alleged illegal payments through a Bank of the Philippine Islands account he had opened in 2009, a year before joining AG&P.
See related story:
Scandal brewing? Joseph Sigelman allegedly removed from AGP amid cloud of doubt
