SEC Issues Public Warning Against Winvest and its Investment Scheme
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- The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued a public warning against Winvest and its founder Darwin Sarte for operating illegally and being involved in a Ponzi scheme.
- The SEC has noted that Winvest is not registered with the Commission and is not authorized to solicit investments from the public.
- The SEC has advised the public to stop investing in Winvest and has taken steps to strengthen regulation with a new draft of the Financial Products and Services Consumer Protection Law.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently published a warning to the public to be cautious with the entity Winvest as well as with individuals or groups of persons claiming to represent it; especially a certain Darwin Sarte, the founder and head of Winvest.
In a statement, the Commission noted that the entity claims to earn profit through Binance Futures Trading.
According to its website, Winvest offers two types of investments to the public ranging from a minimal amount of โฑ500 up to โฑ100,000 per account. The entity promises earnings as much as 3.5% for 14 days. Aside from big returns, investors are also enticed to earn more through Direct Referral Bonus and Unilevel Bonus.
Accordingly, the SEC highlighted that the offers of Winvest take the form of an โinvestment contractโโthat exists when there is an investment or placement of money in a common enterprise with a reasonable expectation of profits to be derived from the efforts of others. Therefore, the Commission reminded that as per the Securities Regulation Code (SRC), entities offering investment contracts are required to be duly registered and that the concerned entity and/or its agentsย should haveย the appropriate registration and/or license to sell such securities to the public.ย
โBased on the Commissionโs database, WINVEST is NOTย REGISTERED with the Commission either as a corporation or as a partnership. Further, 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,โ the Commission stressed.ย
In addition, the scheme being employed by the entity is also noted to be clearly a form of a Ponzi Schemeโa type of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors.
โThe offering and selling of securities in the form of investment contracts using the โPonzi Schemeโ which is fraudulent and unsustainable,ย is NOT registrable security. Theย Commission will not issue aย License toย Sellย Securities toย theย Public toย persons or entities that are engaged in this business or scheme,โ the SEC pointed out.ย
Consequently, the Commission advised the public to stop investing in Winvest and its investment scheme.
Recently, the SEC released a draft version of the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the Financial Products and Services Consumer Protection Law (Republic Act 11765) which will give the Commission the ability to impose stricter penalties on scammers and Ponzi schemes once implemented. (Read more: STRONGER FINANCIAL REGULATIONS: SEC Issues Draft To Impose Stricter Penalty vs Scammers, Ponzi Schemes)
Moreover,ย to conduct joint research and capacity-building projects focusing on cryptocurrency and financial technology regulation, the Commission also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) withย the University of the Philippines Law Center (UPLC) through the University of the Philippines Legal Center Research Program. (Read more; SEC Partners with UP Law Center for Joint Research on Crypto, Fintech Regulations)
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This article is published on BitPinas: SEC Issues Public Warning Against Winvest and its Investment Scheme
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