SEC Facebook

Based on the information gathered by the Commission, a number of individuals
or group of persons claiming to represent
U
–
T
RADE
B
EAUTY
AND
W
ELLNESS
P
RODUCTS
TRADING
and
U B
ET
T
RADE
INTERNATIONAL
OPC
(known in social media
as
“U
–
Trade”
)
headed by its CEO, Founder, and President
PHOEBE EVANGELISTA
GRACILLA,
are enticing the public to invest their money in said entity.
As posted online,
U
–
Trade
offers the following investment Package
Plans:
1.
Under this scheme, an investor shall earn a passive income equivalent to
500% of his/her investment for a 25
–
day lock
–
in period.
Page
2
2.
These Entry Dividends shall earn a total of
250% profit in just 32 days.
Under this scheme, an
investor shall earn 25% of his/her investment in every
cycle (each cycle = 8 days) for 3 cycles and on the 4
th
cycle, earnings equivalent to
175%, thus,
total earning
s
of 250% in just 32 days.
Page
3
On top of the abovementioned, there are also:
Direct
Referral Commission
equivalent to 40% of the direct downline’s
investment;
Indirect Referral Commission
equivalent to 1% of the chosen plan
–
investment of the indirect invite from the 2
nd
up to the 12
th
level; and
Product Rebate
equivalent to 1% of the v
alue of product/s purchased
by the downline.
Allegedly, the company is engaged in the following business activities:
Page
4
U
–
T
RADE
B
EAUTY
AND
W
ELLNESS
P
RODUCTS
T
RADING
is
registered with the
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) as follows:
On the other hand,
U
BET
T
RADE
I
NTERNATIONAL
OPC
was
register
ed
with
this Commission
on
7
September
2021 under Company Reg. No. 2021
090024627
–
14
,
with the following primary
purpose:
“To engage in the business of manufacturing, trading, direct selling, marketing, buy and
sell of gadgets such as cellphone, tablet, prepaid sim card, computer and computer
peripherals and health care products, home care product, beauty/personal product car
e
products, food and beverages and to provide and give services and benefits to its loyal
product users and distributors.
Provided that the retailing activity of this corporation
shall not tantamount to pyramiding, multi
–
level marketing nor networking;
wit
hout acting as investment adviser or fund manager of an investment company;
closed
–
end or open
–
end investment company, investment house, transfer agent,
c
ommodity/financial futures
exchange/broker/merchant, financing company and
time shares/club, shares/me
mbership certificates issuers or selling agents thereof,
provided further that it shall not act as stock broker or dealer in securities nor
solicit take, accept and/or issue investments and/or investment contracts from
public investors.
;
Provided
that
th
e
corporation
shall
not
solicit,
accept
or
take
investments/placements from the public neither shall it issue investment contracts.
(bold underscoring for emphasis)
Page
5
Further, its Certificate of Incorporation explicitly highlighted:
Clearly,
the issuance of a Certificate of Incorporation only grants the said entity
a
juridical personality
to conduct business
1
in accordance with its purpose
but
does not
constitute an authority or license for the corporation to engage in activities such as
solic
i
tation of investments, issuance
, offering and sale of
securities in the nature of
investment
contracts that require a secondary license
.
As the above
–
described schemes involved the sale of securities to the public, the
Securities Regulation Code (SRC)
requires that these securities are duly registered and that
the concerned corporation and/or its agents have appropriate registration and/or license to
sell such securities to the public pursuant to Section 8 of the SRC.
To reiterate, while
U
BET
T
RADE
I
NT
ERNATIONAL
OPC
is registered as a One
–
Person Corporation with this Commission,
HOWEVER
, it is
NOT AUTHORIZED
to solicit
investments from the public since it has not secured prior registration and/or license from
the Commission as prescribed under Sections
8 and 28 of the SRC
. Similarly, DTI
–
registered
UTRADE BEAUTY AND WELLNESS
is
likewise
not allowed
to solicit investment
s
and does not have the necessary authority under the SRC.
1
legitimate
Page
6
Furthermore
,
UTRADE BEAUTY AND WELLNESS
are
not
registered Virtual Asset Service Provider
s
(VASP)
with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas
and do
not have corresponding Certificate
s
of Authority
as a Money Service Business as required under Circular No. 1108, series of 2021 or the
Guidelines for Virtual Asset Service Providers
.
Hence, those who act as salesmen, brokers, dealers or agents or claim to act as
such for
UTRADE BEAUTY AND WELLNESS
in selling or convincing people to invest in the investment scheme
being offered by said entity including solicitations and recruitment through the internet may
be prosecuted and held criminal
ly liable under Section 28 of the SRC and penalized with a
maximum fine of Five Million pesos (P5,000,000.00) or penalty of Twenty
–
one (21) years of
imprisonment or both pursuant to Section 73 of the SRC.
Also, those who invite or recruit others to join o
r 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
Securities
and Exchange Commission vs. Oudine
Santos
(G.R. No. 195542, 19 March 2014).
The public is advised
NOT TO INVEST
or
STOP INVESTING
in any investment
scheme being offered by any individual or group of persons allegedly for or on behalf of
UTRADE BEAUTY AND WELLNESS
as well as to any other entities having the same or similar schemes
and to exercise
caution in dealing with any individuals or group of persons soliciting investments for and on
be
half of them
.
Should you have any information r
egarding the
operation of the subject entities
,
please call the Enforcement and Investor Protection Department at telephone numbers (02)
8818
–
6047 or send your report to the EIPD at
epd@sec.gov.ph
.
For the guidance o
f the public.
Pasay City, 07
Dec
ember 2021