The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday warned the public against 14 companies allegedly engaged in internet-based bitcoin and cryptocurrency Ponzi schemes.
The SEC said in an advisory posted on its website the 14 companies, namely NewG, Smart Capital, Gener8X, Paid2Prosper, CMT (Coins and Mining Trading), PSO (PSOPOWER Apps), TradeConnect, IronTrading (Team Bangon), ExpertTrading, OneCash, Lucky Coins, Miner’s Investment Group, and Digital Coin Trading All Pal for All Seasons, had been soliciting investments from the public.
The SEC said the companies offer their investment contracts in their corresponding Facebook pages or secret FaceBook groups and chatrooms.
They promise unrealistic return on investments ranging from 10 percent to 200 percent a month, and require interested investors to pay their initial investments by depositing the money to a specific bank account, Coins.Ph account, GCash, through a money remittance company, and face-to-face payments with one of their agents.
The SEC said these companies also usually claim that they invest their funds in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to justify their earning capacity.
“The public is hereby warned that such investment schemes, whether with the use of money or cryptocurrencies, are considered as securities subject to the regulatory authority of this commission,” the SEC said.
The corporate regulator said the 14 companies were not registered with the commission as corporation or partnership and were not authorized to solicit investments from the public.
The SEC said those acting as salesmen or brokers of the unregistered investment companies could be prosecuted and held criminally liable under the Securities Regulation Code and penalized to a maximum fine of P5 million or imprisonment 21 years.