SEC flags Quadbit for unlicensed offers

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has warned against another unregistered company promising high monetary rewards to people who are willing to invest in its scheme without a proper license.

In an advisory last week, the SEC said Quadbit Verse had been using its social media pages and “other online tools” to solicit investments from the public.

According to the SEC, Quadbit was marketing itself as an online subscription platform. It is supposedly engaged in foreign exchange trading, cryptocurrency and affiliate marketing.

The SEC noted that this was a recruitment-driven model commonly linked to “illegal or unauthorized investment activities that are inherently unsustainable and detrimental to the public.”

Upon the regulator’s investigation, it found that Quadbit was not registered as a corporation or partnership. It also did not have a secondary license or authority to solicit investments from the public.

“Further, the commission emphasizes that the mere registration of a corporation does not grant it the authority to solicit investments from the public,” the SEC said in its advisory.

Under the Securities Regulation Code (SRC), companies that want to buy or sell securities, including investment contracts, need to secure a secondary license from the SEC.

The SEC warned the public not to participate in investment schemes that appeared too good to be true.

It also recently warned against investing in C’preneur Perfume Trading. It supposedly offered investment packages worth P2,500 to as much as P100,000.

However, the SEC found that C’preneur was also not registered as a corporation and was unauthorized to solicit investments from the public.

The SRC states that violators may be ordered to pay a fine of up to P5 million or face 21 years of imprisonment, or both.

This is the SEC’s latest move against anomalous investment schemes conducted by unregistered companies in a bid to protect investors from fraud. INQ