Animal farm ‘investors’ tell NBI: We’ve been duped

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines — A company is under investigation for allegedly engaging in a pyramiding scheme where potential victims are lured into “buying” hogs and chickens in an animal husbandry venture.

It caught the attention of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) here after about a hundred people in Baguio and Benguet province complained they had been duped.

NBI lawyer Daniel Daganzo said many of the complainants sensed something was wrong in the third week of August, after they stopped receiving dividends.

READ: SEC shuts down 2 more firms for illegal Ponzi, loan scheme

‘Paalaga’ system

They put in investments ranging from P5,000 to P5 million, Daganzo said during the local “Bagong Pilipinas” briefing on Tuesday.

Daganzo urged other victims to submit documents that would help build a case against the company, which he did not identify.

But in a news conference on Friday, some of the complainants said they invested in Farm2Market Agri-Farm OPC (One Person Corp.) and its subsidiaries, which operate branches in Mindanao and Luzon, including one in Baguio.

On Aug. 20, Farm2Market was issued a cease-and-desist order by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for soliciting investments in a “paalaga (animal husbandry) system” without a license.

The company allegedly enticed “partners” to buy a piglet for P5,000 “with a guaranteed return of P2,600 for every piglet bought after three months.”

A P100,000 investment in 20 piglets promised a 52-percent, or P52,000 profit, according to the order.

The SEC warned the public against Farm2Market’s “three-month paalaga” program for being a suspected variation of the Ponzi scheme, where the first line of investors are paid dividends using funds from new investors, giving the impression that the business is actually making huge profits.