Understanding the Freeman Ploutos

By CONG B. CORRALES, Associate Editor .

THE Ploutos Coin has been marketed by its founder Mark Freeman as a cryptocurrency. A cryptocurrency is a digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange that uses strong cryptography to secure financial transactions, control the creation of additional units, and verify the transfer of assets.

Cryptocurrency, however, is not regulated by the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas as it is not yet accepted in the country. The Ploutos Coin is registered only with the Department of Trade and Industry under the name Ploutrade Management Consultancy.

The Ploutos Coin’s value to increase is based on the supposed Forex trading of Freeman. The supposed supply and demand of the investors or coin holders. Its website, https://ploutos-coin.com, shows a link to a “white paper” supposedly written by Freeman where he sells the Ploutos Coin as a cryptocurrency.

It reads in part: “With cryptocurrencies’ recent rise to the masses, 2017 lead to more mass adaptation and interest for the general public. Having attracted a decent amount of wealth from early investors, reaching at most $500 Billion in market capitalization. Now these investors, for a million reasons needs a certain amount of liquid cash, instead of selling out their digital asset — Ploutos Platform will be the solution for them.”

But the Securities and Exchange Commission has classified Freeman’s enterprise as a “securities” because it behaves like an investment instrument.

According to SEC, Ploutos Coins satisfy the following conditions to be classified as one:

• There is an investment of money involved.
• The sale of Ploutos Coins goes to a “common enterprise,” which is the “Freedom Traders Club.”
• Holders are led to expect profits.
• Profits arrive primarily from the efforts of others, not the holder.