WHEN THE PIPC INVESTMENT SCAM HIT THE NEWS WIRES, SOME WRITERS DESCRIBED THE INCIDENT AS BEING SIMILAR TO THE LARGE SCALE INVESTMENT FRAUD PERPETRATED BY THE MANILA INTERNATIONAL FUTURES EXCHANGE IN THE MID‘80′S.

BUT DOES THE SIMILARITY END THERE?

FOR MORE THAN A DECADE, FROM 1985 TILL 1996, THE MANILA INTERNATIONAL FUTURES EXCHANGE HAVE BEEN MILKING THE UNSUSPECTING PHILIPPINE INVESTORS MILLIONS OF THEIR HARD EARNED MONEY, WHILE THE CORRUPT OFFICERS OF GOVERNMENT REGULATORY AGENCIES SUPPOSED TO MONITOR AND PROTECT THE INVESTING PUBLIC PLAYED COY WITH THE PERPETRATORS OF THE SCAM.

WHAT VERY FEW PEOPLE KNEW THEN WAS THE FACT THAT THE OFFICERS OF THE EXCHANGE WERE MERE DUMMIES OF A GROUP OF EVIL SCHEMING HK-BASED CHINESE BUSINESSMEN WHO HATCHED THE PLAN TO ESTABLISH THE FIRST EVER COMMODITY FUTURES EXCHANGE IN THE COUNTRY.

ALSO, WHAT VERY FEW PEOPLE KNEW THEN WAS THE FACT THAT THE MEMBER-BROKERS OF THE EXCHANGE WERE ALL HENCHMEN OF THIS GROUP WHICH BANKROLLED THEIR PHILIPPINE OPERATIONS.

AND WORST, NEVER DID THE REGULATORY AGENCIES, SPECIALLY THE SEC SUSPECT THAT THEY WERE BEING USED TO LEGITIMIZE THIS GRAND SCHEME TO SCAM PHILIPPINE INVESTORS. THEY WERE LED TO BELIEVE THAT BY HAVING ITS OWN COMMODITY FUTURES EXCHANGE, THE PHILIPPINES WILL BE SEVERAL STEPS AHEAD OF ITS NEIGHBORS IN TERMS OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. AND SOMEHOW, THE HUGE AMOUNT OF GREASE MONEY THAT CHANGED HANDS THEN, INSURED THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE EXCHANGE.

IT WAS TOO LATE FOR THEM TO LEARN THAT THE PEOPLE THEY WERE DEALING WITH WERE THE SAME PEOPLE RUNNING A NETWORK OF BOILER ROOM OPERATIONS ALL OVER AUSTRAL-ASIA.

AND, WHEN THE AXE WAS ABOUT TO BE STRUCK ON THEM BY THE SEC IN 1995 BECAUSE OF A DELUGE OF COMPLAINTS AND LAWSUITS, MOST OF THESE MIFE BROKERS RELOCATED TO NEW OFFICES, REGISTERED NEW NAMES, AND VENTURED INTO SPOT FOREIGN CURRENCY TRADING ,WHICH AT THAT TIME WAS HARDLY REGULATED , AND WAS JUST AS PROMISING ,AND JUST AS ATTRACTIVE TO INVESTORS LOOKING FOR "GET RICH QUICK" SCHEMES AS COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING.

IN THE ABSENCE OF REGULATORY MEASURES, THESE BOILER ROOM OPERATORS PLAYED "CATS AND DOGS" WITH THE SEC. THEY WOULD CLOSE SHOP IN ONE PLACE ONLY TO RE-APPEAR IN ANOTHER PLACE UNDER A DIFFERENT NAME.

GUESS WHO WERE THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE PPIC SCAM?

THEY WERE THE SECOND STRINGERS OF SOME OF THE BROKERAGE HOUSES OF MIFE IN THE MID '80S. THEY WERE THE BACK ROOM BOYS THEN. THEY ARE THE PRINCIPAL SCAMMERS NOW.

HOW DID I KNOW?

I SHOULD KNOW BECAUSE I WORKED WITH ONE OF THE MORE ACTIVE BROKERS OF MIFE AT THAT TIME. I ROSE UP THE RANKS AND GAINED ENOUGH OF THEIR TRUST FOR THEM TO SHARE WITH ME THEIR DIRTIEST SECRETS AND EVEN SENT ME TO SOME INTERNATIONAL ASSIGNMENTS.

MY EXPERIENCES WITH THEM TOOK ME TO DIFFERENT DESTINATIONS WORLDWIDE. THESE SHALL BE THE SUBJECT OF MY FUTURE BLOG POSTS HERE IN THE COMING MONTHS.

THIS BLOG IS MERELY THE INTRODUCTION TO A SERIES OF BLOGS DETAILING THE VARIOUS ROLES I TOOK IN THE BOILER ROOM OPERATION OF A COMPANY WHICH WAS CONTINUALLY ASSUMING DIFFERENT NAMES AS IT SPREAD ITS POISONED TASK OVERSEAS.THE CAPER TOOK "THE UNSUSPECTING ME" TO DIFFERENT CITIES IN THE PHILIPPINES AS WELL AS TO HONG KONG, SINGAPORE, KL, AND US CITIES LIKE SAN FRANCISCO, SAN DIEGO, PALO ALTO, AND TIJUANA IN MEXICO.

SUCH IS THE MAGNITUDE AND SCOPE OF THEIR SCAMMING OPERATIONS!

I met the guy personally in Singapore sometime in 1995 and again in San Francisco in 1996.

They were just cursory meetings through the people I worked for. As early as then, I knew Michael and my bosses were running Forex “boiler room” operations worldwide. Government regulators forced them out of California way back then and charges are still pending against these people.

I knew Michael as being part of the group that owned C&T Global a member broker of MIFE in 1985. When MIFE was shut down, C & T assumed different names and worked with several Filipino dummies who, I should say belong to the kind who would sell their souls and exchange their principles for the mighty big bucks.

Their modus operandi is rather simple. They strike when everybody else is looking elsewhere. They will be sending people here who are not yet in the government watch list. They will keep their contacts here intact and well provided for. And when things have cooled down, they will set up operations once again.They have a battery of lawyers in their payroll who would also do anything for them to set up operations here over and over again. I’ve seen it happen repeatedly. And I guess, I expect it to happen once more in the Philippines.

They can no longer operate in Australia. in Singapore, in Hongkong, and in the U.S. (And oh, by the way they tried Mexico City too in 1995!) Authorities there can not be bribed at all and new regulatory measures were immediately put in place after their operations in those countries were discovered. In 1995, before the MIFE closed down, these people hit China real hard and they were able to make a killing from unsuspecting Chinese farmers! (I know of some friends who became part of that scam operations and they told me about their horrible escape ordeal from Chinese authorities.)

Michael Liew may have left the Philippines, but the group’s presence is still very much evident. Their people come and go, hatching new ways to scam Filipinos. You may want to ask, how come they are able to operate freely here, and how come they are able to do it over and over again? First off, the regulatory measures in place have a lot of loopholes. For example, the Forex company operating from the Enterprise in Makati (also set up by Michael Liew) is still able to exist because of a legal loophole, disguised as a “research and facilities provider”. Second, Philippine authorities can be bribed! And this says it all!

Take my word for it…..more “Michael Liews” are coming! And we better be damned prepared for them!

I got this definition of “BOILER ROOMS” from Investopedia, (http://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/boilerroom.asp), and it clearly describes the method of approach used by PCPI and other scam operators.

“A place where high-pressure salespeople use banks of telephones to call lists of potential investors (known as a “sucker lists”) in order to peddle speculative, even fraudulent, securities. A boiler room is called as such because of the high-pressure selling.

A broker using boiler-room tactics gives customers only positive information about the stock and discourages them from doing any outside research. Boiler-room salespeople typically use catchphrases like “it’s a sure thing” or “opportunities like this happen once in a lifetime”

The SEC (http://www.sec.gov/answers/boiler.htm) further describes this as an operation conducted by dishonest brokers.

PIPC was a “boiler operation” under both definitions. But there is more to it than meets the eye. PIPC may have bandied around that it has an account with ABN-AMRO but the fact is, it is not a foreign currency trading account but a mere fund depository account. Their clients were probably misled into believing that their funds will be traded through the bank and will earn the promised interest.

During my own stint with a similar company closely associated with Michael Liew, I found out that their group, all “boiler room” operators, ( and mind you me they belong to only one group) have one clearing house for all their transactions and this is based in Macau. Whether this Macau operation is legitimately funneling all invested funds to the interbank market or not is something I did not have the chance to verify.

Here is what I surmise to have transpired with Michael and his PIPC!

On his own, Michael Liew may have conducted a foreign currency pool operation, pooling together his clients funds and trading them himself without his clients’ knowledge. The guaranteed profits can come from roll-over interest earnings on certain currency placements such as swiss francs which gives substantial daily roll over earnings on certain placements. But ahh, these interest earnings can be wiped out overnight if the price starts churning against his position. if this is what he did, and if the price did turn against his position, he really would have no choice but pack up and run as what the likes of him have done in the past. If his placements have deteriorated in value substantially, he knows he can not run away from his Macau connections. The choice was clearly to pack up and go, pay up his Macau connection and hide under their protection; or stay and face the charges that clearly will be slapped on him by his clients here in the Philippines. Evidently, he chose to flee from his clients and is now probably sipping tea with his benefactors and associates in Macau.