The MFT Group of Companies (MFT Group) asked the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the “automatic lifting” of a cease and desist order issued against the company for alleged illegal sale of investments.
MFT said in a statement its lawyers on March 8 filed an omnibus motion with the corporate regulator, citing the SEC’s Enforcement and Investor Protection Department’s (EIPD) failure to file its comment on time. It also noted the SEC en banc’s failure to resolve the motion with the mandatory 10-day rule.
The SEC, in an order dated Jan. 16, issued a CDO and directed MFT to stop its allegedly unauthorized solicitation activities.
It said that based on its investigation, the company was offering and selling unregistered securities in the form of investment contracts to the public in the guise of borrower-lender agreements in the form of memorandums of agreement that would later be transformed into promissory notes.
MFT filed a motion to lift the CDO on Jan. 23.
The SEC then asked the EIPD to comment or oppose by Feb. 13. However, MFT said it did not respond within the specified deadline.
MFT Group then filed a notice to withdraw their motion to lift on Feb. 8, which was not approved until Feb. 22.
The EIPD eventually filed their opposition to lifting the CDO on Feb. 29, or 16 days past the deadline, without proffering any justification. The SEC had 10 days from Feb. 13, or until Feb. 23, to resolve the motion to lift CDO with or without EIPD’s comment.
“It has already been ten days since the automatic lifting of the CDO, so MFT claims there is nothing more to make permanent,” the company said.
“How can the SEC resurrect and even make permanent a long dead CDO? To do so would be highly anomalous and oppressive to MFT,” MFT Group spokesperson Estrella Elamparo said.
MFT Group, in its website, claims that it primarily invests in real estate, healthcare, food and beverage, financial services and others.
The SEC has not immediately responded when asked for comment on MFT Group’s statement.