8 investors file complaints vs. Organico for missed payout

EIGHT investors flocked to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) 7 office to file complaints against Organico Agribusiness Ventures Corp. after the company failed to fulfill its promise to return the money they had invested in the firm for the purchase of pigs.

The investors combined had poured in more than P1 million in Organico for the purchase of pigs before the firm’s investment-taking activities were revealed to be a scam.

Alma from Consolacion town, Cebu, bought 10 pigs worth a total of P36,000, but she was unable to receive her expected payout at the end of 90 days as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had ordered the company’s closure.

A combined team of SEC, CIDG-Central Visayas and Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group operatives raided the offices of Organico on June 11, 2019 for violating the Securities and Investment Code.

Before that, the SEC had issued a cease-and-desist order against Organico on May 28, 2019 for operating without registration as a corporation or investment firm.

In an advisory issued a year earlier on May 21, 2018, the SEC said: “Allegedly, the money invested will be used to fund the company’s diverse businesses, which include organic farming, organic poultry, organic piggery, restaurant serving organic food, telemarketing, music studio and construction and eventually, an organic meat shop. Another investment scheme is the 90-day investment, where for every P3,600 invested, one piglet is raised and sold after three months and the investor gets his money back with profit for a total of P7,000.”

Alma said the company pledged to return their money last August. But it is now October, and they still haven’t received anything, the reason they will now send a demand letter.

“We are complaining because until now, we have not received the money that they promised to give us last August,” Alma said.

She said she and her husband earned a living by raising animals in Consolacion, the sales proceeds of which they invested in Organico in the hope that their money would grow.

Another one of those who complained was a 26-year-old overseas Filipino worker (OFW) in Taiwan who had invested P180,000 on 50 pigs and expected to receive P300,000 in 90 days.

Sheila (not her real name) of Sogod, Southern Leyte said she invested everything she had earned abroad in Organico believing that she could gain from the investment.

Her fellow OFWs in Taiwan had urged her to invest in Organico since they too had invested in the purchase of Organico’s pigs.

But now that it turns out they had been scammed, they just want the return of their capital.

Sheila never suspected that Organico’s scheme was a scam, as she had had someone check first if the firm truly owned a piggery. And it was confirmed that a big farm in Ormoc City with many pigs and other products was owned by the company.

Their faith in Organico was strengthened when the company said it would also slaughter the pigs and sell these in the markets itself, and that it also manufactured feeds which Organico itself bought to feed to its pigs.

The biggest investor among the eight complainants was a call center agent from Osmeña Boulevard in Cebu City who had invested P700,000—or everything the agent had earned and saved since starting work as a call center agent.

The one who persuaded the agent to invest was a pastor, who had already received a large payout from Organico.

The call center agent’s world fell apart when the CIDG 7 raided Organico’s offices in Cebu and closed them in June.

“Sus, gihurot gyud nako akung savings kay mao lagi nanimpalad ba nga mo tubo sad og dako kaysa bangko nga dugay pa kaayo ang interest,” said the call center agent. (Jeez, I invested all my savings in Organico so I could earn a lot since in the bank it will take a very long time for the interest to grow.)

The CIDG 7 said it would send the demand letters to Organico and give the company time to return the money of its investors. AYB

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