Insider Trading in our Cooperative

I’ve written a very lengthy email to the Board of Directors of our Credit Cooperative just to tell them know how frustrated I was with the dividend that I received. Of course, I did not admit it in my email (LOL). If there’s one thing that frustrates me most is when I felt that I was shortchanged on something. I know that life’s not fair but the Cooperative should be professionally run. It should never favor just one person particularly if the person happens to be an officer of the Finance Committee. They may think that their actions are innocent but it’s really tantamount to corruption. Corruption starts from small penny or action. It’s been proven once and again that power is intoxicating. It’s really sad that the action of very few members of the Cooperative is destroying the things that the Cooperative stands for. Here’s my email:

I raise this issue not because I’m not happy or bitter with the outcome of the dividend that I received but because I want to understand how the things work in our Cooperative. I am not questioning the shares of stocks owned by the founding members (pioneers) of the Cooperative. You guys worked for it and you deserved it. What I’m questioning is the shares of stocks owned by Mr. JBB who is currently the Finance Manager of the Cooperative. I want to understand how he was able to acquire so much shares (60,000) in just a short period. I once informed Mr. RE of my intentions to increase my shares. In fact, he sold the shares of Lorna Benitez me. I was happy because of the generous offer. I was however informed that no new shares will be sold because the Coop is applying for an increase in capital from the CDA.


The ownership of a bigger share is very important since the computation of dividend would greatly depend on it. I would like to know whether there were lapses or rules violated when Mr. JBB procured those shares. I don’t want to blame everybody including the Board who may have approved the acquisition of shares in good faith. I just felt that there was an absence of transparency since a lot of members including myself are interested in buying additional shares. If he bought those shares from terminated members, it should have been offered publicly to all the members first. The finance team should have made an announcement that shares are open for the public. I think this is where the lapses started since the person in question has access to financial records and with the intention to acquire more shares as well. In this case, I felt that Mr. JBB was given priority over everyone else. Was it because he had an access to the financial records? If he has not violated any rules because there are no rules in place on shares acquisition, I think it’s about time to create a rule or policy. What is important is that the rule will not just favor one person.


I still have faith in our Cooperative. I’ve met wonderful people here including you guys. I hope that this complaint will not be taken against me. That’s the reason why I want this complaint to be confidential. I hope you won’t mention my name if and when this will be discussed.


Thank you and God bless.