{"id":777026323,"date":"2025-05-12T10:04:07","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T13:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777026323"},"modified":"2026-04-21T23:03:58","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T02:03:58","slug":"former-pagcor-chairman-sentenced-for-graft-and-malversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/former-pagcor-chairman-sentenced-for-graft-and-malversation","title":{"rendered":"Former PAGCOR chairman sentenced for graft and malversation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Efraim Genuino and four other former top officials have been sentenced to over 100 years of imprisonment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Philippines.- The Sandiganbayan, the Philippines\u2019 anti-graft court, has sentenced <a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/former-pagcor-chair-found-guilty-of-graft\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Efraim Genuino<\/a>, former chairman of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR), along with former COO <strong>Rafael Franciso<\/strong>, former SVP for administration <strong>Rene Figueroa<\/strong>, former SVP for corporate communications services<strong> Edward King<\/strong> and former assistance VP for internal audit <strong>Valente Custodio<\/strong>, for misusing PAGCOR funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They were found guilty of five counts each of violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (Republic Act No. 3019) and five counts of malversation of public funds under the Revised Penal Code. According to the court, they conspired in the misuse of PHP50.05m (US$$912,000) in PAGCOR\u00a0funds between 2005 and 2008, supposedly to fund promotional items for<strong> the BIDA Foundation<\/strong>, an organisation founded by Genuino in 2003.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For the graft charges, each received a sentence of six to 10 years per count, and they were permanently barred from holding any public office. For malversation, the court imposed sentences of 10 to 17 years for two counts, six to 11 years for one, and 20 to 40 years for the other two. The court also issued fines totalling PHP45.17m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite the sentences handed down, Philippine law limits imprisonment for multiple convictions to a maximum of 40 years under Article 70 of the Revised Penal Code. All defendants were acquitted of 14 other charges of graft and 15 counts of malversation related to other transactions. These included donations of PHP44.05m to private entities, purchasing PHP26.7m in tickets for the 2008 film Baler, and spending PHP63m on ads for BIDA from 2008 to 2009. The court concluded that there was not enough evidence to prove guilt in these cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The ombudsman had previously accused Genuino of improperly using PAGCOR funds to help BIDA Foundation with efforts to gain a seat as a party-list in the House of Representatives in the May 2010 elections. BIDA did not succeed.<\/p>\n\n\n<div id=\"see-also-container\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"see-also-label\">See also:<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"related-article\">\n\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"related-article__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2021\/02\/Industry-experts-doubt-that-Thailand-will-legalise-gambling-300x200.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"related-article__text\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"see-also-label-strong\">See also:<\/span> <a href='https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/thailand-and-china-discuss-cooperation-against-online-gambling'>Thailand and China discuss cooperation against online gambling<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Efraim Genuino and four other former top officials have been sentenced to over 100 years of imprisonment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":26856,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The Sandiganbayan, the Philippines' anti-graft court, has sentenced former PAGCOR Chairman Efraim Genuino and four other ex-officials to imprisonment for misusing PHP50.05m in public funds between 2005 and 2008, intended for the BIDA Foundation. They were found guilty of graft and malversation, resulting in a permanent ban from public office and significant fines, though total imprisonment is capped at 40 years.","focusai_entities":"Efraim Genuino, Rafael Franciso, Rene Figueroa, Edward King, Valente Custodio, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR), Sandiganbayan, BIDA Foundation, Ombudsman","focusai_location":"The Philippines","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.8), investor_analyst (0.8), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"PAGCOR Governance Impact","query":"What specific reforms or enhanced governance frameworks has PAGCOR implemented since 2008 to prevent similar instances of fund malversation and ensure regulatory integrity?"},{"label":"Market Risk Assessment","query":"How does this high-profile conviction of former PAGCOR officials influence the perceived regulatory risk and investment climate for both land-based and online gaming operators in the Philippines?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[439,158,16333],"tags":[24732,405,128],"class_list":["post-777026323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal-news","category-slider-home","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-graft","tag-pagcor","tag-philippines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777026323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777026323"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777026323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777026330,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777026323\/revisions\/777026330"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777026323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777026323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777026323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}