GLOBE Asiatique has yet to start bookbuilding on Friday for its initial public offering, but already the aggressive real estate company has suffered a stunning setback that threatens to sink its capital-raising exercise.

The Pasay City Regional Trial Court on Friday issued a writ of preliminary attachment on Globe Asiatique Realty Holdings, president Delfin Lee, his son and chief financial officer Dexter Lee and a related real estate developer, based on a P1-billion fraud complaint filed by creditor Philippine National Bank.

PNB had lent nearly P1.4 billion to the lowcost developer since 2005, funding the real estate developments of the company which, in turn, used the homebuyers’ contracts to sell and related receivables as collateral for the facility.

The Lucio Tan bank said it was forced to declare Globe Asiatique in default after it discovered that at least 111 supposedly housing buyers were either non-existent or outright fraudulent.

“In falsely representing that (they have) valid and subsisting contracts to sell, defendants (Globe Asiatique and the Lees) evidently had no intention to pay for their loan obligations,” PNB told Pasay RTC Judge Pedro de Leon Gutierrez.

To placate PNB, Globe Asiatique proposed to apply its outstanding loan availments amounting to P151 million from contingent loan proceeds it hoped to receive from another subdivision project, a proposal that the PNB found inadequate.

Two months ago, Pag-IBIG Fund also announced that it had discovered 400 fraudulent housing loan applications in Globe Asiatique’s Xevera subdivision project in Mabalacat, Pampanga.

Those fraudulent loan applications, in turn, triggered the release of P300 million of Pag-IBIG money to Globe Asiatique.

Globe Asiatique president Delfin Lee admitted the irregular housing loan applications, but insisted the company had already canceled the contracts and promised to make restitution to the government funding agency.

To defend itself from the PNB lawsuit, Lee also hired Marcos Ochoa Serapio & Tan, the former law firm of Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr.

Globe Asiatique hoped to raise anywhere from P806 million to P1.24 billion for its listing, P300 million of which it planned to settle shortterm promissory notes it had obtained from the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. for working capital.

RCBC earlier this year also agreed to extend a P2.5-billion loan to finance Globe Asiatique’s condominium venture, the GA Sky Suites in Quezon City. In return, Globe Asiatique awarded the P780-million construction contract for GA Sky Suites to RCBC’s sister company, EEI Corp.

The younger, Ateneo-educated Lee had also hoped to cash out, depending on the final share price, anywhere from P220 million to P340 million, from the secondary offering component of the IPO.

That multi-million windfall, part of the younger Lee’s inheritance, may now have been jeopardized as well.

ADD reboundable among the traits of GMA publicist Dante Ang.

Ang has just been contracted as a communications consultant by the new bosses of the cash-cow Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, with no less than chairman Margie Juico vouching for him.

“I knew him when I was still single as he was and is a friend of the family,” Juico said of Ang. “And I trust him.”

Juico, who was one of the closest aides of the late President Corazon Aquino and now of P.Noy, said Ang presented a communications plan to the PCSO board that slashed the agency’s budget by P100 million a year.

The plan was approved and so was Ang’s consultancy.

What is not generally known is that, instead of supporting Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s candidate Gilbert Teodoro, Ang helped in the P.Noy campaign after having cut off his ties with his political patron with a year left in her Malacañang tenure.

In any case, Ang is in good company.

Another PR consultant, Danilo Gozo, who served as the longest Pagcor director—seven years—under the GMA administration, is set to be appointed, knock on wood, as director of the Government Service Insurance System.

Like Ang, Gozo resigned from the gaming agency a year before GMA’s term ended; he was immediately drafted by Mar Roxas for his media team.

Gozo’s other card: he served as deputy press secretary under the Aquino 1 administration.

Those who bought Japan-made SUVs from January to July 2010 should be entitled to a duty-free windfall because of the free-trade treaty that kicked in this year, according to the Board of Investments.

To a buyer of a Mitsubishi Pajero, that translates into about P700,000 rebate.

Strangely, the Bureau of Customs is opposing the policy-making Board of Investments in its interpretation of the implementing rules of the Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement.

According to the grapevine, Angelito Alvarez, the revenue-strapped new customs commissioner, is supporting his staff recommendation that the effectivity of the Jpepa rules only became effective starting August 2010, after their enactment and publication.