The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday disclosed that it is monitoring 10 entities, including popular online ‘investment firm’ Francswiss Investment, that are reportedly luring Filipinos to invest their hard-earned money into non-existent products and services.

This, after the National Bureau of Investigation revealed that Francswiss is an international internet pyramiding syndicate which has duped individuals in the Philippines alone of almost P1 billion.

Francswiss is not registered with the SEC. Hubert Guevara, SEC director for compliance and enforcement department, told reporters that aside from Franscwiss, they will also be investigating smfund.com, and sminvestment.com. ‘Unverified estimates indicate that there were about 5,000 and even between 10,000 to 20,000 Filipinos who invested in Francswiss alone and the minimum investment for it was ,000′,’ he said. 

The SM Group of Companies issued a statement on Wednesday denying connection with sminvestment.com and smfund.com. Vicente Aquino, executive director of the government’s Anti-Money laundering Council, said agencies are readying criminal and civil charges against those involved in the schemes.

The civil case will enable the government to forfeit the assets of the people behind these scams. Guevara said the SEC found out about the SM Fund scheme following a complaint from two individuals who were unable to get their money back.

The complainants also said that their ‘uplines’, or the people who recruited them into the scheme, could not be found and would not return their calls. He added that they are investigating some six individuals who caused the publication of an advertisement in a newspaper in Baguio for a per person investment, the same amount being solicited by smfund.

‘If they advertised in Baguio, we’re sure that they would have done the same in other urban areas across the Philippines such as Cebu and Davao,’ Guevara said. Presently, he said the SEC is also monitoring some discussion boards which mentioned investing with a return of 4.5 percent to 6 percent daily for the investors’ money.

‘These types of investment schemes started in other countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia and the operators moved out of these countries and now they’re here,’ Guevara said.

‘We are appealing to the public to be wise in their investments, especially those that are internet-based, because many people out there are just out to get a quick way to be rich at the expense of other people,’ Guevara said.