SEC flags 5 Mindanao firms illegally soliciting investments
INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
DAVAO CITY – The Securities and Exchange Commission-Davao Extension Office (SEC-DEO) has identified five entities in the Davao Region that are among the 16 flagged by the SEC Enforcement and Investor Protection Department for soliciting investments from the public without the necessary licenses.
In a statement, SEC-DEO said the five entities are ASJ Forest Global Limited; Multi Fortune Stake; Universal Bot Corp. which is also known as Universal Online Shop; Amazon80.com which is also known as Amazon.pro, Amazon Philippines and Amazon-bonus.com; and Dragonfly Philippines Inc. which is known in its social media pages as Dragonflytech.
The SEC’s office here covers the Davao Region; Region 12 comprising the provinces of South Cotabato, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, and Sarangani and highly urbanized General Santos City; Cotabato City, and Maguindanao province.
Other subject of the set of advisories are Decentra, Ominemeta Global Solutions, Southpole Finance or Southpole Administration of Financial Marketing, Accure Wealth Finance, J Shoes Footwear Trading, Paynance, Margas Petrochemical Products Trading which is also know as Marsgas or mars-gas.com, AA Castro Construction and Aggregates Trading or the AA Castro Hauling Construction Management and Aggregates Trading OPC (one-person corporation), Cari Bon Store, PSE.Tavfar.com, and Borrego Solar Inc.
The SEC-DEO statement said common among the entities was that they were all found to be soliciting investments without the legal personality, as under the Securities Regulation Code of the Philippines, those who want to solicit investments from the public are required to secure a separate license.
On the part of the ASJ Forex Global Limited, it claimed that it was established in 2009 as it “allegedly became one of the leading online brokers, offering Forex Exchange and Contracts for Difference (CFDs) on over 40 trading goods, to more than 5,000,000 clients in nearly 190 countries worldwide.”
Under its scheme, an investor who would put in $30 would earn from eight percent to 30% “daily of trade amount” under its Meta Trader 5 Platform. Investors are also lured to recruit because they would get referral commission which would range from 4% to 16%.
Investors in Multi Fortune Stake can earn “guaranteed total earnings of 100% in just 30 days or double-your-money scheme in just 30 days through its Plan.” Just like the other entity, a referral bonus is also offered to those who can recruit supposed investors.
The Universal Bot Corp.solicits between P130 to P150 from its investors who “may earn unlimited earnings depending on the user’s amount of time spent responding with the chatbot.”
“Investors may earn unlimited earnings as there is no maximum response for the chatbot per day and there is no time interval per question from the chatbot. To obtain earnings, the user must invite another person to claim earnings,” it added.
Unlike the first three entities, amazon80.com requires one to register first and choose three VIP levels. VIP Level 1 is worth P100, VIP Level 2 at P500, and VIP Level 3 at P2,000.
Investors are promised to earn 5% to 7% commission. An investor can supposedly earn between P30,000 and P300,000 for inviting more investors with the earning dependent on the number of invitees and the levels that they will avail of.
On the other hand, Dragonflytech allows investors to invest online with their money, ranging from P500 to P100,000 in exchange for products under its Conventional Product Investment.
“(A)n investor must ‘Recharge’ to the entity’s application/App, that is, one must deposit an amount which would cover the amount of the investment and earn ranging from 500% to as high as 1,000% in just 100 days,” the SEC advisory said.
Another scheme, the Balance Product, “promises income ranging from 1,200% to 1,800% in just 100 days. Users earn by purchasing any package,” the SEC advisory added.
