The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it has cancelled the corporate registration of Ecomamoni Environmental Recyclable Materials Manufacturing Inc. for soliciting investments without license from its office.
In a statement over the weekend, the SEC said Ecomamoni was also fined P1 million for violating Republic Act (RA) 8799 or the Securities Regulation Code (SRC) and the Financial Products and Services Consumer Protection Act (FCPA) or RA 11765.
According to the SEC, Ecomamoni also violated the Revised Corporation Code of the Philippines or RA 11232 which prohibits corporations from possessing or exercising corporate power other than those conferred by the law or by its articles of incorporation.
The company and its incorporators were also ordered to pay an additional P1 million as administrative sanctions under the SRC. The SEC did not identify the company’s incorporators.
“Ecomamoni was found to be enticing the public to invest in the company by purchasing any of its recycling plans, where investors were instructed to press the start button of their chosen plan every day to receive the promised profit,” the SEC said.
“It also advertised a ‘Longterm Platform’ where investors were invited to register in exchange for monetary reward upon completing the required task in the chosen recycling plan,” it added.
The SEC initially in an advisory in November 2024 said Ecomamoni is not a registered corporation with the SEC and did not have a license to sell securities or solicit investments.
Ecomamoni subsequently registered as a corporation with the SEC in December 2024 with the primary purpose of engaging in manufacturing recyclable materials and substance in converting waste to energy for related works and activities.
“Such registration, however, does not provide corporations authority to solicit investments from the public,” the SEC said.
At the same time, the SEC received reports that Ecomamoni presented its certificate of registration from the SEC to convince the public of the legitimacy of its operations.
It continued to introduce a new scheme with higher participation fees ranging from P600 to P165,000, with the highest daily earning of P7,000, the SEC said.
“The scheme being offered by [Ecomamoni], is clearly in the nature of a Ponzi scheme where 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 underlying legitimate business from where it could source its promised return on investments to its investors,” the SEC said.
“Ecomamoni’s solicitation of investments from the public without securing the license to do so constitutes fraud, which is prohibited by the FCPA,” it added.
