CA upholds order against Juluis Allan Nolasco’s 1 UP Time

MANILA, Philippines – The Court of Appeals has upheld the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) cease and desist order against a company found to have been soliciting investments without permits, saying that the regulator had met all the conditions needed to issue the order.

Citing the appellate court’s decision promulgated on Feb. 11, the SEC said in a statement on Tuesday that it had gathered sufficient evidence against Superbreakthrough Enterprises Corp. (1UP Time) to prove that it had been illegally soliciting investments from the public.

The order was issued in December 2023 and made permanent in April 2024.

READ: SEC issues cease and desist order vs Superbreakthrough Enterprises

According to the CA, the SEC may issue a cease and desist order if the commission had done a proper investigation and if continuing operations would result in “grave or irreparable injury or prejudice to the investing public.”

“A review of the records shows that both requisites were present, thereby justifying the issuance of the [order],” the CA said.

The case stemmed from 1UP Time’s petition to have the order lifted, saying that the SEC supposedly committed grave abuse of discretion when it had issued the order and made it permanent.

However, the CA argued that 1UP Time was given due process, especially since it was informed of the SEC’s findings and “fully aware of the allegations against it.”

The SEC likewise said 1UP Time president Juluis Allan Nolasco was previously a subject of a separate cease and desist order for promoting illegal investments through another company, Alphanetworld Corp.

An investigation into Alphanetworld resulted in the discovery of 1UP Time’s activities, the regulator said.

It added that 1UP Time had been offering securities in the form of investment contracts and product packages without the necessary license. The company supposedly sold health, wellness, skincare and personal care products priced from P10,000 to as much as P188,000 each.

Investors were promised up to 35 percent in returns, the SEC noted.

Under the Securities Regulation Code, securities cannot be sold without a registration statement approved by the SEC.

“Since 1UP Time neither obtained a secondary license from the SEC to offer securities nor registered its product packages as securities, its actions were deemed to have operated as a fraud or posed a substantial risk of grave or irreparable harm to investors,” the commission said.