SEC Facebook

Based on
reports and
information gathered by the Commission
,
the
e
n
tity
operating under the name
BCPAY FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY, INC.
(
BCPAY
INC.
)
by
FRED BRUNO
, GAVINO MATTERIG, ROMMEL CARLOS, TROY DENIA, DAVID
PAKMAN, JOMAR MALACAS, JM PABLO, JOHN UBAGAN, and EDZ ALILANO
using
mainly the domain “
www.bitcashpay.net
is
soliciting investments in the Philippines
WITHOUT
THE NECESSARY LICENSE AND/OR AUTHORITY
from the
Commission
.
BCPAY
INC.
is
claiming to be
“
one of the
‘
few
’
SEC Registered Crypto
companies
in the Philippines
”
and is
offering an all
–
in
–
one multi
–
platform DeFi Project
(
Decentralized Finance Project
) which aims to pr
ovide solutions to the public’s daily
financial
transactions.
It’s supposed ecosystem
includes an online payment
and remittance
system,
e
–
wallet,
decentralized exchanged
with crypto trading AI
/ Bot option
,
FastCash3
K
crypto
decentralized lending
platform
, Bitcash Cooperative
/ Bitcash Bank
,
and a
BitcashPay (
C
rypto
)
Academy
,
among others, with its
BITCASHPAY Token
(
BCP
Token
)
as its integral currency.
At the outset
,
BCPAY
INC.
is
offering its
BCP
Token
for sal
e,
promising
lucrative
rewards to its early
investors
of
up to 12% Annual Percentage Yield (APY)
by stakin
g in its
platform
and
up to 180% APY
by providing liquidity
thereto
during its
Initial Coin Offering
(
ICO
),
which seems
“
too good to be true
”
and is an indication
of a possible “
Ponzi Scheme
.
”
Regardless, a
s mentioned in our
SEC
Advisory on
Initial Coin Offerings
and
Virtual Currency
posted
08 January 2018
, an
ICO
is the first sale and issuance of a
new virtual currency to the public usually for the purpose of raising capital for start
–
up
companies or funding independent project
s.
D
epending on the facts and circumstances surrounding t
heir issuance, some
of these new virtual currencies follow the nature of a security as defined by Section
3.1 of the Securities Regulation Code (
SRC
)
whereby a person invest
s
money in a
common enterprise and is led to expect profits primarily from the efforts of others.
The same goes for the
BCP
Token
where
BCPAY INC.
seeks to use the money
it gathered from the
public to fund its purported project on the promise of profits.
Hence, since what is being offered by
BCPAY INC.
are securities,
Section 8 of
the
SRC
requires that all offers and sales of
said
securities must be duly registered
with the Commission
and
BCPAY INC.
and/or its agents
must
have appropriate
registration and/or license to
offer and/or
sell such securities to the public
.
However, b
ased on
our records,
BCPAY INC.
is
NOT AUTHORIZED
to solicit,
accept or take investments/placements from the public nor to issue investment
contracts and other forms of securities defined under Section 3 of the
SRC
in the
Philippines
.
BCPAY INC.
also has no
brokers, account managers,
agents,
and/or
repre
sentative
that
have
appropriate registra
tion and/or license to
offer or
sell
such
securities to the public
.
It
s primary registration
with the Commission does not carry with it the license
to solicit investments from the public and that
t
he issuance of a
Certificate of
Incorporation only grants an entity a juridical personality but it does not constitute an
authority or license for the corporation to engage in activities that require a secondary
license from the SEC
.
It also appears in our database that none of its above operators
have
the
appropriate registration and/or license to offer
and/
or sell such securities to the public.
BCPAY INC.
is
NEITHER
REGISTERED
a
s a Virtual Asset Service Provider
(VASP)
with the
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)
and
DOES NOT HAVE A
CORRESPONDING CERTIFICATE OF AUTHORITY
as a Money Service Business
(MSB)
required under the Guidelines for Virtual Asset Service Providers
(
BSP Circular
No. 1108, Series of 2021
)
.
Further,
BCPAY FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY INC
’s
name
DOES NOT APPEAR
among those
list
ed as
registered MSBs as of January 2021 with the Anti
–
Money Laundering Council
under
the Anti
–
Money Laundering Act
.
W
ith regard to
BCPAY FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY INC
’s
crypto decentralized lending platform,
FastCash3k
utilizing the domain “
www.fastcash3k.com
,
”
our database likewise shows
that it is
NOT REGISTERED
with the Commission and
is
NOT INCLUDED
in the list
of SEC regis
tered online lending platforms.
The public is reminded that any offer or p
romise of ridiculous rate
s of
return
with little or no risk similar to what
BCPAY FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY INC
is offering
is an indication of a possible
Ponzi Scheme
where returns to early investors are likely to be paid out from the
investments of new investors and not out of the companies’ profits
similar to those
already flagged by the Commission as
scams
.
Those engaged in such operation tend
to close or to shut dow
n
operations once they cannot gather enough investments from
new investors to fund their schemes
.
The public is again
informed that
the offering and sale of such securities in the
form of investment contracts using the
“Ponzi Scheme”
is fraudulent and
unsustainable and
is
NOT a registrable security
.
The Commission will NOT ISSUE
a License to Sell Securities to the Public
to persons or entities that are engaged
in this business or scheme
.
Unregistered and/or unauthorized lending platf
orms
like the
FastCash3k
are
risky
as well
and should be avoided
accordingly.
Therefore
, the
public is advised
NOT TO INVEST
or
STOP INVESTING
on
BCP Token
and/or
in any
other
scheme
being
offered
by
BCPAY FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY INC
and
NOT TO
BORROW
nor to
LEND MONEY
to
FastCash3k
.
Accordingly, the Commission warns all unscrupulous individuals and/or entities
that
strict penalties are imposed for v
iolations of the
Securities Regulation Code,
the Revised Corporation Code, and such other rules and regu
lation enforced by
the SEC.
Those who act as salesmen, brokers, dealers or agents of unauthorized entities
in selling or convincing people to invest in their investment scheme offered including
solicitations and recruitment through the internet
, may likewise be criminally
p
rosecuted and penalized with a
maximum fine of Five Million pesos
(P5,000,000.00) or a penalty of Twenty
–
one (21) years of imprisonment or both
pursuant to Sections 28 and 73 of the SRC.
Similarly, those who invite or recruit others to join or invest in
such venture or
offer investment contracts or securities to the public may incur criminally liability, or
otherwise be sanctioned or penalized accordingly as held by the Supreme Court in the
case of
SEC vs. Oudine Santos
(G.R. No. 195542, 19 March 2014).
The names of all those involved will also be reported to the Bureau of Internal
Revenue (BIR) so that the appropriate penalties and/or taxes be assessed
correspondingly.
Should you have any information regarding any investment solicitation activity
by any
individual or group of individuals representing
BCPAY FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY INC
, please send your
report to the EIPD at
epd@sec.gov.ph
.
For the guidance of the public.
Pasay City, 05
October
2021