PIPC update: US law firm to undertake investigation

Here’s an update on the Performance Investments Products Corporation (PIPC) scam.

For those who have never heard of this case, PIPC was a foreign exchange trading investment firm which became one of the largest financial scams in the Philippines victimizing a number of high-networth individuals. The company grabbed headlines back in July 2007 after its Singaporean owner Michael Liew fled the Philippines and disappeared, allegedly taking with him more than $250 worth of investors’ money.

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PIPC was a Ponzi scheme, says Ferrier Hodgson

In the September 2008 update made to investors of scam investment program Performance Investment Products Corporation (PIPC), fraud investigation firm Ferrier Hodgson disclosed that the results of preliminary analysis support its belief that PIPC operated as a Ponzi scheme.

A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that involves promising or paying abnormally high returns to investors out of the money paid in by subsequent investors, rather than from revenues generated by a real business.

PIPC was a multimillion-dollar scam investment program that was exposed in 2007 after the owner of the company, Singaporean Michael H.K. Liew, fled the Philippines and disappeared, supposedly taking with him between US$140 million and US$250 million of investors’ funds.

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Updates on the PIPC scam (April 2008)

Almost a year after the Performance Investments Products Corporation (PIPC) scam broke out, there seems to be less news now from the media or the investigators. That does not mean, though, there are no developments happening in the background.

Here’s what we know so far, based on the latest report by financial fraud investigation firm Ferrier Hodgson.

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PIPC agents, officers charged with fraud

The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported today that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed charges against the officers and agents of the forex investment firm Performance Investments Products Corp. or PIPC after it found the company in violation of certain securities laws.

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Sen. Enrile, Legarda file resolutions to conduct PIPC inquiry

Looks like the PIPC: Performance Investment Products Corporation scandal has now reached the hallowed chambers of the Philippine Senate.

Last week, Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Loren Legarda filed two separate Senate Resolutions urging the Philippine Senate to conduct an inquiry into the operations of the beleaguered forex trading firm PIPC. The purpose of both resolutions is to institute measures that would protect the investing public from fraudulent investment schemes.

The legislative branch seems to take a cue from the executive branch who ordered the creation last week of a task force that would identify and monitor investment scams operating in the country (Read our opinion of this task force in What's the point of an anti-scams task force?).

Click "Read More" to view a summary of the Senate Resolution filed by Senator Enrile and Senator Legarda. 

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PIPC head Michael Liew in Hong Kong?

ABS-CBN News reported that Michael Liew, founder and head of the forex trading program Performance Investment Products Corporation (PIPC), was spotted in Hong Kong last week.

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said Singaporean national Michael Liew was sighted in Hong Kong, boosting chances for PIPC investors to recover their investments. 

The NBI said it is closely working with the International Police (Interpol) branch in Hong Kong to have Liew arrested.

- Source: ABS-CBN News

As of Thursday, August 9, however, appointed PIPC liquidator Ferrier Hodgson told investors during a meeting that no contact has been established yet with Michael Liew.

A summary of the Ferrier Hodgson's PIPC investigation report is available here: Progress of Ferrier Hodgson’s investigation of PIPC

Click here to discuss PIPC: Performance Investments Products Corporation in the PMT Forum.

Progress of Ferrier Hodgson’s investigation of PIPC

On August 9, Thursday, investors of Performance Investments Products Corporation (PIPC) attended a presentation of Ferrier Hodgson, appointed provisional liquidators of PIPC, to listen to the results of their initial investigation.

Here is a summary of the report.

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PFEC’s supposed modus operandi

Apparently this is how PFEC or Performance Foreign Exchange Corporation is "scamming" investors, which led the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to raid the company's Makati office on Wednesday.

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Is PFEC illegal?

What we know: the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) raided the offices of PFEC (Performance Foreign Exchange Corporation or Performance Forex) at the Enterprise Building in Makati yesterday.

Why the NBI raided PFEC

The NBI gave the following reasons for conducting the raid: (1) some investors reported they have been scammed by PFEC; and (2) that the company is suspected of operating illegally (that is, against the stated purposes in its SEC registration).

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The end of Performance Foreign Exchange Corporation (PFEC)?

Due to accusations of illegal foreign currency trading, the offices of Performance Foreign Exchange Corporation (Performance Forex or PFEC) at the Enterprise Building in Makati were raided yesterday, August 8, by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), reports the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Armed with a search warrant from a Makati judge, NBI agents swooped down on the offices of Performance Forex at the mezzanine of the Enterprise Building on Paseo de Roxas in Makati.

They confiscated several computers, according to a bureau official who asked not to be identified by name.

He said the raid was prompted by complaints filed by several investors who claimed to have fallen victim to an investment scam perpetrated by the firm.

“We received information that the firm was illegally operating as a foreign currency trader,” the NBI source said.

The full story and related PFEC discussion in the Performance Foreign Exchange Corporation (PFEC) thread in the PMT Forum.

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