The Securities and Exchange Commission ordered Alabel Maasim Mining Corp., Alabel-Maasim Small Scale Mining Cooperative and Alabel-Maasim Credit Cooperative to stop soliciting investments from the public without the necessary license.
The SEC issued a cease-and-desist order against ALAMCCO and ALMAMICO after securing substantial evidence that they were engaged in offering and selling to the public securities in the form of investment contracts without the necessary license from the Commission.
ALAMCCO and ALMAMICO operate largely in Saranggani, General Santos City and Koronadal City. They invite members to invest certain amounts in exchange for a guaranteed 35 percent monthly return, which is supposedly compounded when investors lock in their investments for a year.
Both companies were also found to have engaged in public offering of securities when they indiscriminately or randomly promoted their investment schemes through videos posted online.
The Securities Regulation Code provides that “securities shall not be sold or offered for sale or distribution within the Philippines, without a registration statement duly filed with and approved by the Commission.”
Aside from lacking the necessary license, the SEC said the investment scheme of ALMAMICO and ALAMCCO resembled a Ponzi scheme, an investment fraud that involves the payment of purported returns to existing investors from funds contributed by new investors.
The SEC also ordered ALMAMICO and ALAMCCO to cease from promoting the investment scheme through the internet or delete or remove immediately the promotional presentation of the investment scheme form the web sites.
“Offering and selling investment contracts to the public without the necessary license or permit will operate as a fraud on investors or is likely to cause grave or irreparable injury or prejudice to the investing public,” the SEC said. Jenniffer B. Austria