With declaration of the validity of the search warrants, the National Bureau of Investigation can now continue, without legal impediment, on its probe on KAPA.
The validity of the search warrants was elevated to CA after the Manila RTC denied KAPA’s motion to reconsider the trial court’s ruling that denied the quashal of the warrants which covered KAPA’s offices in Quezon City, Sarangani Province, General Santos City, Taytay in Rizal, Compostela, among other places.
Section 8 of SRC provides that “no person shall engage in the business of buying or selling securities in the Philippines as a broker or dealer, or act as a salesman, or an associated person of any broker or dealer unless registered with the SEC,” while Section 26 prohibits a Ponzi type of investment scheme as it considers it as a fraudulent transaction.
In seeking search warrants, the NBI said that a team of its agents went to KAPA offices to investigate and conduct case build-up and personally witnessed the pyramiding activities of KAPA. The CA ruled that in special criminal cases, a trial court is authorized to issue search warrants outside of its territorial jurisdiction pursuant to administrative guidelines issued by the Supreme Court .