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Friday, March 29, 2024

Guaranteed returns

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Four hundred fifty-five years.

Guaranteed returns

This is the jail term given Rosario and Saturnino Baladjay for duping thousands in their “investment” firm Multinational Telecoms Investors Corporation (Multitel) more than 20 years ago.

The Court of Appeals has affirmed the November 2015 decision of a Makati court that found the couple guilty of 65 counts of violation of the Securities Regulations Code for selling unregistered securities to the public. Each count carries a penalty of seven to 21 years in prison. The Makati court also ordered the couple to pay the complainants P8 million.

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Of course, 455 years in prison an impossibility. Saturnino has died. Rosario is not expected to be kept in jail for the next four and a half centuries. Instead, the sentence will be, at most, 40 years. There is a threefold rule on penalties that says “the maximum duration of the convict’s sentence shall not be more than three-fold the length of time corresponding to the most severe of the penalties imposed upon him.”

But 455 years is not just a figure; it is a reminder of the ignominy of what the couple did—tell investors that for a minimum investment of P10,000, they are certain to receive a 4-percent interest per month, or a whopping 48 percent per year. Multitel also offered a double-your-money scheme so long as one agreed to a lock-in period of 18 months. Conduit companies offered investors a lower, but still attractive, rate of 10 percent per annum.

The affliction is not unique to the Baladjays and their followers. We have seen too many people falling for similar get-rich-quick schemes. Just this year, numerous investors in the Southern Philippines were duped into parting with their hard-earned money by an organization which also masqueraded as a religious group.

There are countless other sob stories.

The anger is understandable. These people lost money they worked hard to save over many years. These are funds they could have used to buy property, send children to school, pay for healthcare. By becoming an investor in these dubious funds, they put their life savings to waste.

They opted in and suspended disbelief because of grand promises of payback. Why work harder, when you can park your money and reap even greater returns? The anger could just as easily be turned on themselves, for being gullible, or greedy, or both.

Unfortunately, the adage remains true: When something seems too good to be true, it likely is.

These days, not even hard work and good credentials can guarantee professional success and greater freedom even as they increase their likelihood. One has to have the right skills—both technical and interpersonal—to attain a measure of success. One has to be at the right place at the right time, and be of a disposition so positive as to overcome initial frustrations.

Get rich quick is only possible if deceit, corruption or an extraordinary stroke of luck is involved.

The only returns that duping other people and letting greed cloud better judgment guarantee are failure, shame and comeuppance.

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