THE Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday said it secured another win over investment scams after a Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Batangas fined seven people affiliated with One Dream Global Marketing Inc. totaling P2.8 million. They were also ordered to serve up to 20 years of jail time each.
In a decision dated July 14, the Batangas City RTC Branch 2 found officials of One Dream guilty for syndicated estafa for their pyramid scheme, when its permit only allows them to sell detergents, which violates the Securities Regulation Code.
Convicted were the following: Arnel Gacer; Jobelle De Guzman; Judith Itoh; Marlon De Guzman; Louie De Guzman; Belinda De Guzman; and, Jun De Guzman. The court also issued an alias warrant of arrest against Ariel De Guzman, Richard Ramos, Jay-ar De Guzman and Joel De Guzman, who all remain at large.
The case against the Lipa, Batangas-based investment scam stemmed from complaints filed with the Department of Justice by nine investors against One Dream for syndicated estafa on July 21, 2015. Two other investors filed complaints against the group with the SEC’s Enforcement and Investor Protection Department on August 3, 2015. The complainant-investors accused the officers of One Dream of offering investments worth P888, with the promise of a P1,300 payout after four days, excluding a 10-percent tax.
Investors were allowed to pay for up to 31 slots, or a total of P27,528, in exchange for P39,022.80 after four days. One Dream also supposedly promised freebies and a commission of P44 for every referral.
In his inspection of One Dream’s office on July 11, 2015, then Lipa mayor Meynardo A. Sabili found that the group had been illegally soliciting investments from the public. He then ordered One Dream to cease operations, as its business permit only allowed it to engage in the retail and wholesale of detergents.
The investors noted they were not aware One Dream was selling detergents but only guaranteeing high returns over a short period of time in exchange for investing.
Following the local government unit’s inspection, payouts from One Dream stopped, despite repeated demands from the complainants.
Gacer and the One Dream management team supposedly assured them that there was nothing to worry about. Later, however, they neither showed up at One Dream’s principal office nor could be found at their respective residences.
The court ruled that it was “undisputed” that the accused, through the company One Dream, solicited investments from the public, enticing investors with the promised profit of 46 percent every four days, plus P44 for every referral.
“The investment scheme employed falls within the definition of ‘securities’ under the SRC and that the same constitutes a ‘fraudulent transaction’ under Section 26 of the same law because it involves the purchase and sale of securities by the use of a scheme that is intended to defraud the investing public, which is prohibited by Section 26,” the court said.
The court also noted that One Dream had no actual business operation other than the collection of money from investors, as the receipts it issued in the alleged sale transactions carried the markings “Product to follow,” “P.T.F.” or “F.F.P.”
“It also turned out that One Dream had in fact no financial capacity to repay the loans as it had an authorized capital stock of only P1 million and paid-up capital of only P100,000.00. Clearly the representations regarding its supposed financial capacity to meets its obligations to the private complainants were simply false,” the court said.
This is the second conviction secured by the SEC during the pandemic, with the first guilty verdict promulgated in the case against RJF Construction and Development Corp. on November 27, 2020.
