The Securities and Exchange Commission issued a cease-and-desist order against Farm to Market (F2M) Agri-Farm OPC and its related entities over alleged unauthorized solicitation of investments from the public.
The SEC, in an order, asked F2M and its related entities, F2M Tarlac City-Main Branch, F2M, F2M Paalaga System, Hog Raising Business, F2M Tuguegarao Branch, F2M Dagupan, F2M La Union Branch and F2M Lagawe, Ifugao to immediately stop offering or selling securities until it secures registration and the necessary license from the SEC.
The order also covers F2M-Solano Nueva Viz. Branch, F2M Tayug, F2M La Trinidad, Benguet, F2M Agriventure and F2M Digital Raisers.
It also includes agents, representatives, salesmen, conduit entities and subsidiaries, as well as persons acting on their behalf including F2M branches and their respective managers in various branches.
The SEC said it also prohibited the F2M entities from transacting funds in its depository banks and from transferring, disposing, or conveying any assets to preserve the assets of its investors.
It said the F2M entities were found to be offering securities through the F2M 3 Months Paalaga System, where investors were invited to buy a piglet for P5,000 in exchange for a guaranteed return of P2,600 for every piglet bought after three months.
An investor who pays P100,000 for 20 piglets will receive a return of 52 percent of the amount invested or P52,000 within three months.
The SEC said the scheme involved the offer and/or sale of securities in the form of an investment contract, where a person makes an investment of money in a common enterprise with an expectation of profits, derived primarily from the efforts of others.
This is a violation of the Securities Regulation Code, the SEC said.
“[T]he unauthorized investment-taking activities of F2M OPC, F2M entities and their cohorts operate as a fraud on investors, or [are] likely to cause grave or irreparable injury or prejudice to the investing public, if not restrained,” the order said.
“F2M OPC, F2M entities and their cohorts’ act of selling/offering unregistered securities in the form of investment contracts constitutes fraud which should be promptly restrained for the protection of the investing public,” it said.
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