Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Agnes Devanadera has upheld a resolution recommending the filing of charges of qualified theft against brothers Alexander and Clifford Lichaytoo for allegedly taking high-end competition shotguns from Clay and Feather Inc., a firm they partly owned.

Devanadera dismissed a motion for reconsideration filed by the Lichaytoos to reverse DOJ Resolution No. 412, citing that there is "no cogent reason to alter, modify or reverse our findings."

The said DOJ resolution, issued under former DOJ Secretary Raul Gonzalez, accused the Lichaytoo brothers of having "committed thievery with grave abuse of confidence" for allegedly taking several high-end Beretta competition shotguns from C & F.

Alexander and Clifford, the firm's corporate secretary and chief financial officer, respectively, were accused of taking from C & F four 12 gauge Beretta shotguns and one 20 gauge shotgun in different occasions in 2006 and 2007. The firearms, described as top-of-the-line competition shotguns, were valued at a total P1,350,000.

The qualified theft charges filed against the respondents by their business partners Raul Arambulo and Adam Jimenez III were earlier recommended dismissed for insufficiency of evidence.

But a DOJ review under Gonzalez reversed the earlier dismissal of the charges and said that all the elements of qualified theft were present in the case.