The Justice Department has dropped the estafa case against GMA Network Inc. chairman Felipe Gozon, after he agreed to return the P1-billion downpayment made by businessman Ramon Ang for the purchase of a minority stake in the network.
Gozon said in a statement Ang received the P1 billion, while in return he received a substantial amount from Ang.
“The parties agreed to keep the details of their settlement confidential,” he said.
Gozon said there was no basis for the charge of syndicated estafa as there was no deception or fraud employed by the Gozon group in the proposed sale of their GMA shares to Ang.
Ang earlier filed an estafa case against the Gozon group for allegedly terminating the negotiations and failing to return the P1-billion downpayment for a 34-percent stake in GMA Network.
Gozon claimed his group had the right to retain the P1-billion downpayment made by Ang, who allegedly breached the contract to purchase a minority stake in the broadcast company.
Ang had accepted Gozon’s explanation about the non-involvement of the other members of the Gozon group in the retention of the downpayment.
The Gozon, Jimenez and Duavit families own a combined 79-percent stake in GMA Network, which operates GMA-7.
The Jimenez and Duavit Groups, which were not included in the estafa case filed by Ang, waived their rights and interests over their shares in the downpayment and expressed willingness to return such shares.
Gozon earlier said he was in talks with Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. and Globe Telecom Inc. for the distribution of media content.
GMA Network’s move to team up with telcos came after rival ABS-CBN Corp. partnered with Globe to distribute content using the Ayala-led telco’s mobile network.
GMA Network reported a net income of P1.099 billion in the first half of 2015, up 89 percent over the same period last year.
Revenues in the six-month period increased 15 percent to P6.653 billion, boosted by the network’s record-breaking performance in the second quarter.
The company’s second-quarter top-line climbed 25 percent to P3.647 billion, while net income soared 170 percent to P690.7 million, mainly on higher advertising revenues.