PIPC investors lose money as Michael Liew disappears

Following the demise of the FrancSwiss online "investment" program, more Filipino investors appeared to have lost millions of investment funds when the Singaporean owner of a trading firm operating in the Philippines allegedly ran away with all the company's money.

Last week, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported that Mr. Michael H.K. Liew, a Singaporean and owner of Performance Investments Products Corp. (PIPC), disappeared, leaving the company's coffers nearly empty.

As much as $250 million in investors' funds may have been lost after the owner of a foreign exchange trading outfit disappeared, leaving the company's bank accounts here and abroad nearly empty.

Because of this, an official of the trading firm called Performance Investments Products Corp. (PIPC) Thursday asked the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to help find the company’s Singaporean owner who is suspected of having salted away the funds.

In a letter to NBI Director Nestor M. Mantaring, Cristina Gonzalez-Tuason, PIPC general manager, requested the help of Interpol to locate Michael H.K. Liew, the owner of Performance Investments Products Corp. in the British Virgin Islands (Performance Investment, BVI).

"I, together with the other investors of Performance Investments (BVI) have reason to believe that Mr. Liew unlawfully took [the] money of Performance Investments (BVI) to the grave prejudice of its investors, like myself," she said in her letter.

Tuason asked the NBI "to determine Mr. Liew's current whereabouts for his immediate apprehension and to trace, and if possible, retrieve, the funds he unlawfully took."

As opposed to the previously popular investment programs FrancSwiss and Multitel, PIPC does not appear to operate as a pyramid scam. PIPC is said to be involved in the trading of advanced financial products such as futures and derivatives.

The minimum investment was $40,000 and, during the past few years, the company had earned above average returns for the investor. 

Discuss PIPC and meet other PIPC investors in the Performance Investments Products Corporation (PIPC) thread in the PMT Forum.

Related discussion thread: Performance Foreign Exchange Corporation (PFEC)