The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed with the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Wednesday, June 21, criminal charges against the owners, officers, and employees of a firm which offer to the public and sell securities “without government license.” The complaint, filed by the SEC’s Enforcement and Investor Protection Department (SEC-EIPD) was for alleged violations of the Sections 8, 26 and 28 of Republic Act No. 8799, the Securities Regulation Code (SRC). The SEC-EIPD identified the firm in the complaint as Petromobil Corporation. Named respondents are Petromobil’s Board Chairman and President Jesser T. Cordova; Vice President Jeriz Barrido Ramos; Treasurer Rema C. Macarilay; Directors Reynaldo L. Macarilay and Liezel Nadine L. Toga; and investment solicitors Jolina Capanas, May Leonor Diaz, Darlene Guimbal, Patricia Tamayo, Marian Odessa Toga, and Vea Villanueva. None of the respondents could be contacted for comment as of posting. In its complaint, SEC-EIPD said that “sometime in August 2020, several emails, reports and complaints, were received from the public and investors regarding the alleged investment-solicitation activities of Petromobil Corporation.” “It was substantially stated in the said emails, reports, and complaints that Petromobil Corporation is enticing the public to invest by offering would-be investors a Co-Ownership Program for a minimum capital of Four Hundred Thousand Pesos (P400,000) for a promise of receiving a profit amounting to One Hundred Thousand Pesos (P100,000) within a period of three (3) months and a chance to co-own seventeen (17) gas stations which the company alleged it was planning to build,” it said. It noted in its complaint that “the gas stations will be managed by Petromobil Corporation and investors were promised to receive 60 percent of the net income which will be given on a quarterly basis.” “The investors-complainants further mentioned that Petromobil Corporation promised to give would-be investors shares of stocks which will be issued to each co-owner through a Deed of Assignment,” it also said. “In addition, Petromobil Corporation also offers would-be investors an Oil Importation Co-Ownership Program for a minimum capital of P500,000,” it added. But SEC-EIPD said that its existing records showed that “respondent Petromobil Corporation has no license or authority from the SEC to publicly offer or sell securities nor does it have any pending application for registration of securities, as certified to by the SEC’s Corporate Governance and Finance Department (CGFD) and Markets and Securities Regulation Department (MRSD).” Also, it said, the 11 persons named in the complaint “have not been issued any license or authority by the SEC to sell securities as broker or dealer or to act as salesman or an associated person of any broker or dealer as certified to by the Company Registration and Monitoring Department (CRMD) of the SEC.” “Despite due notice of the clear and express instruction from the EIPD Team, Petromobil Corporation did not heed the warning to stop their unauthorized operations of soliciting investments from the public, but rather, the respondent company merely changed its advertisements from co-ownership to co-franchisee which has the same implications,” it added. “Thereafter, the SEC continued to receive numerous reports, emails/queries as well as complaints from the public pertaining to the investment solicitation of Petromobil Corporation,” it said. At the same time, SEC-EIPD said “the scheme being offered by Petromobil Corporation is in the nature of Ponzi scheme were the profits or payouts shall be taken from incoming investors or additional pay-ins of existing members-investors considering that it does not have any underlaying legitimate business from where it could source its promised return on investments to its investors.” “For obvious reasons, the scheme of Petromobil Corporation will eventually collapse from its own sheer weight and inherent unsustainability,” it added.