In the Know: Buyers, beware!

On March 8 this year, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued an advisory warning to the public about the spurious activities of an entity named Bullion Buyer Ltd.

According to the SEC, it received information that Bullion Buyer Ltd. was operating in Baguio City, organizing groups of people and inviting each coordinator to recruit other beneficiaries.

Those recruited were then asked to pay P30 that, the group claimed, would entitle them to receive P10,000 a month through their Landbank ATM accounts for four years and 11 months, starting February 2017.

They would also be entitled to a grant of P500,000 for livelihood programs, the group added.

But Bullion Buyer Ltd. was not registered with the SEC as a corporation or partnership, the government regulatory agency said.

“There being no primary license, it is not authorized to solicit investments which require a secondary license as provided under Sec. 8.1 of the Securities Regulation Code,” the SEC advisory stated.

The SEC also advised the public to stop investing in this kind of activity that may turn out to be a fraudulent scheme, and to take the necessary precautions in dealing with Bullion Buyer Ltd. and its representatives.

The following month, in April 2017, SEC Director Jose P. Aquino brought to the attention of Interior and Local Government officer in charge Catalino Cuy the modus operandi of Bullion Buyer Ltd.

The group’s coordinators, he wrote Cuy, had been recruiting beneficiaries who, for an initial fee of P30 for a booklet or passbook, were promised pension funds from the “Marcos wealth.”

The P30 booklet bought by attendees to the so-called general assembly of One Social Family Credit Cooperative at the UPLB on Saturday had a picture of former strongman President Ferdinand Marcos on its front cover. At the back was written Bullion Buyers, said to be the credit co-op’s former name.

The website of the Cooperative Development Authority showed that  One Social Family Credit Cooperative was not on its list of registered cooperatives.

Sources: Inquirer Archives, cda.gov.ph, antipolo.ph