THE Tagum City Regional Trial Court Branch 2 had sentenced life imprisonment to key officials from the controversial investment company Rigen Wellness Product Marketing (Rigen).
In a statement, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it won the case against Rigen chief executive officer Rico John Colorines Garcia and Rigen auditor King Paul Bryan. The two were found to have engaged in “unauthorized investment-taking activities” and filed cases of syndicated estafa last April 11 and May 2, respectively.
The two officials were penalized with P2.01 million of actual damages and P120,000 of moral damages, with an interest of 6 percent per year.
With the help of the SEC, two individuals who were encouraged to invest in the company appeared before Tagum Trial Court and filed a case against Rigen.
Rigen promised its investors 400 percent of the money return within a month, and the company claimed that its profits were from cryptocurrency and foreign exchange trading.
“It has been held that where one states that the future profits or income of an enterprise shall be a certain sum, but he actually knows there will be none, or that they will be less than he represents, the statements constitute an actionable fraud where the hearer believes him and relies on the statement to his injury,” the court decision stated.
With this, the court had decided that Rigen had “employed fraud” when its officials pretended to have the authority to solicit investments from the public when the company did not have such authority.
“[T]he promised high-yielding venture was unsustainable, as Rigen Marketing was not really engaged in any legitimate business,” the court decision stated.
“The totality of the testimonies of the witnesses, documentary evidence on record, and findings of the SEC all point to both accused Garcia and [Auditor] as the perpetrators of a grand scheme to defraud investors of their investments in their company, Rigen Marketing,” it added.
Meanwhile, other Rigen officials identified as co-accused such as Rosenda Colorines Garcia, Christine Palijo, Romen Samuel Wabina, and Jemeilyn Tacay remain at large. ICE