A LAWMAKER said he will elevate the formal investigation against the Forex trading firm, Freedom Traders Club (FTC), to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) should its founder Mark Freeman snubs again the committee meeting today, July 26.
Councilor George Goking, chairperson of the City Council's Committee on Commerce and Trade, said on Wednesday, July 25, that they invited the NBI-Northern Mindanao and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) for the next round of committee meeting.
Goking said the notice of the meeting was also sent to all addresses of Freeman. He said the FTC can send its representatives though to answer queries.
"Napadala na nato ang notice sa tanan address ni Freeman. Kung dili siya motunga ato nang i-endorse sa NBI ang kaso for formal investigation kay wala man mi police powers (We had sent the notice to all addresses of Freeman If he won't show up again we will endorse it to the NBI for formal investigation because we don't have the police powers)," Goking said.
Goking said they invited the Central Bank since currencies are within its jurisdiction.
"Ang currency, anti-money laundering sa BSP mana nga area (Currencies, anti-money laundering is under the BSP jurisdiction)," Goking said.
The FTC, which is not registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has been offering a virtual currency called Ploutos Coins to lure the public, especially the professionals to invest.
An investor from Butuan City identified as Geo Paulo Burdeos already charged Freeman with estafa charges last July 20.
Burdeos feared that Freeman may run away with the huge money people had invested.
"Dapat sana ma-freeze yung account ni Freeman para wala siyang mapuntahan kasi he can always run (His account should be frozen so he can't go anywhere because he can always run). Nag e-mail nako sa BSP pero walang reply (I sent an e-mail to the BSP but no replies yet)," Burdeos said.
Burdeos said he got a report from fellow investors that Freeman flew to Korea for a contract signing to have Ploutos Coins become a crypto-currency block chain.
"That is yet to be verified kasi (because) they've got a lot of lies already," Burdeos said.
SunStar Cagayan de Oro has been trying to reach Freeman but to no avail.