SEC warns investors of fraud in One Lightning deals

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has sounded the alarm bells and asked the public not to deal with One Lightning Corp., a company whose transactions – the regulator claimed – fall within the parameters of fraudulent transactions.

 

"One Lightning Corp. has not been issued by this Commission a secondary license to publicly offer or sell securities and to solicit investments from the public," according to a March 10 advisory on the SEC website.

 

The regulator said that people joining the activities of One Lightning "run the risk of being prosecuted for criminal violation of the Securities Regulation Code."

 

As part of its modus operandi, One Lightning invites people to invest in its cosmetics and healthcare products with the promise of huge returns on investments through what it claims is a revolutionary compensation plan for distributors under a 70 percent profit-sharing scheme in favor of investors.

 

"Based on investigations conducted, the said Company undertakes to give referral awards for sponsoring new investors and maturity awards when those investors in turn are able to recruit new investors or when their accounts mature," the SEC noted.

 

"The said Company also undertakes to give bonuses at every level for three levels of referrals made," it added.

 

This was the exact strategy used by One Lightning to attract investors, according to a victim of the investment scam, who asked not to be named as she is in the process of trying to recover money as promised by the company.

 

In January, the victim's spouse joined One Lightning after being lured by recruiters with expensive cars to invest up to P380,000 at the start.

The initial investment ballooned to nearly P500,000 even without selling products simply by recruiting other potential investors.

 

"In one month, the invested money grew to P1.1 million, as posted in the online account with One Lightning, but we cannot withdraw it," the victim said.

 

However, after news of the scam started leaking into the media, the victim said she and her husband could no longer access their online account. Neither were they able to contact officials of One Lightning.

 

In an open letter posted on its Facebook account on March 10, One Lightning said the its is taking legal steps regarding the issue.

 

"Our competent legal team is already looking into this matter as we are confident that such unfair and untruthful allegations will be rectified and corrected in proper channels," the company said. – Danessa O. Rivera/VS, GMA News