SEC busts alleged Baguio investment scam

MANILA  -The Securities and Exchange Commission filed charges against perpetrators of an alleged investment scam in Baguio City after company employees and agents were caught illegally accepting investments during their own event.

The corporate watchdog joined a June 10 operation with the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission, the Regional Anti-Cybercrime Unit Cordillera, and the Baguio City Police Office that led to the arrest of employees of Casa Infini Builders and Realty Co. Ltd.

Among those arrested were Jennylyn Galletes De Los Santos Floresca, identified by the SEC as partner or incorporator of the firm, and 24 other employees.

The event, dubbed Rap EsTea Talk, was held in a hotel in Legarda Road Baguio.

“In the Real EsTea Talk event, Casa Infini claimed to have persuaded more than 700 investors into its investment scheme. Operatives during the event witnessed the actual placement of funds amounting to hundreds of thousands of pesos from 19 would-be investors,” the SEC said in a statement.

The SEC’s Enforcement and Investor Protection Department filed a complaint charging Floresca and others for violation provisions under the Securities Regulation Code, Financial Products and Services Consumer Protection Act, and the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.

The criminal complaint led to the indictment of Floresca and three others for various violations, the SEC added.

“[Evidence] shows that there is reasonable ground to hold respondents Floresca, Ruhhiya Ymana, Jerick Sadernas, and Jacqueline Melchor liable for violations of Sections 8, 26 and 28 of the [SRC] for their acts of offering securities without the required registration statement duly filed with and approved by the SEC, for investment fraud, and for soliciting investments without license,” according to Baguio City prosecutors. INQ