SEC hasn’t stopped firm behind Ploutos

By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent .

START an investment scheme. Get rich. Get exposed. When the money stops flowing in, take a vacation.

No one could say exactly where the brains behind the Freedom Traders Club’s infamous Ploutos Coin investment scheme is. The government has done practically nothing to go after Mark Freeman and his group since the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) warned the public about what officials said was a sham.

SEC itself has yet to issue a cease-and-desist order against Freeman’s group, and one official blamed this failure on their work backlog.

Lawyer Jose Aquino, SEC director for  enforcement and investment protection, told a news conference here yesterday that their workload prevented them from submitting a recommendation to the Commission en banc to issue a cease-and-desist order against the operations of Freedom Traders Club.

He said there was already a recommendation for a cease-and-desist order intended for submission to the Commission en banc so as to convince it that there is reason for the issuance of a cease-and-desist order.

“We will present it. It so happened that we became very busy this week, and we failed to meet,” said Aquino.

This means that without a cease-and-desist order, Freeman’s group can still operate, technically, he said.

The issuance of a cease-and-desist order was first sought by lawyer Renato Egypto, SEC regional director, after he and other officials here sounded alarm bells over the Ploutus Coin investment scheme that was launched by Freeman in the city. He said there was a need for the SEC to stop the investmnent scheme for good.

Egypto however told reporters yesterday that there was no report that Freeman’s group continued receiving investments after the exposé that was looked into by the city council’s trade and commerce committee under Councilor George Goking.

SEC Commissioner Javey Paul Francisco explained that the Commission en banc does not issue cease-and-desist orders without due process.

Francisco said the process includes investigative work by SEC’s field offices and the Commission’s enforcement and investigation  protection  department before the matter reaches the Commission en banc.

He however said local governments can help by using their powers to immediately stop investment scams. This, he said, can be easily done by simply canceling the business permits of establishments behind schemes such as Freeman’s.

Francisco said what the SEC could immediately do is to issue of public advisories the moment it receives information about potential investment scams. SEC did this when it found out about Freedom Traders Club’s operations.