AVZ Ventures/Avzventures, Inc.

February 15, 2022 ENFORCEMENT AND INVESTOR PROTECTION DEPARTMENT SEC ADVISORY The Commission has received information that individuals or group of persons representing an entity named AVZ VENTURES/AVZVENTURES, INC. are enticing the public to invest their money in the said entity with the promise of high monetary rewards or profits. Based on the reports from the public, AVZ VENTURES/AVZVENTURES, INC. has been inviting the public to invest in their company. In its Online Advertisement, AVZ VENTURES/AVZVENTURES, INC. has been inviting the public to join their company by investing a capital amounting to Five Hundred Ninety Eight pesos (P598.00) which includes two (2) bottles of Buah Merah product, 2 flyers and brochure and 2 application forms with a chance to earn Php800 to Php1,600 daily. To proliferate its scheme it used two (2) websites: 1) https://avzventure.com/ (active) and 2) http://avzventures.com/ (no longer active). Based on its website, the following are the operators of AVZ VENTURES/AVZVENTURES, INC. AVZ VENTURES, INC. is enticing the public to purchase an Unli Package to start enjoying the privileges it offers for a promise of receiving the following: Further, in its Facebook Page, AVZ VENTURES/AVZ VENTURES, INC. is enticing the public to invest by posting and advertising the income being received by one of their members. Below is a screenshot copy of the said FB post: The aforementioned schemes focus on the referral and recruitment of new members to gain profit. There was little mention on how to market or sell its products which are even offered at a discounted rate of 30% up to 60% discount. Rather, the campaign, based on its business plan concentrates on the recruitment of downlines. Stripped to its core, the scheme of AVZ VENTURES/AVZVENTURES, INC. with its focus on recruitment, is undoubtedly a pyramiding scheme masquerading as a Multi-Level Marketing program and its business plan/scheme involves the offer and sale of securities in the nature of investment contract to the public. The pyramiding scheme, involves securities because for payment of a sum of money, often nominal, the investor participates in a recruitment scheme that promises a stream of profits. The scheme that requires recruitment in a binary or two-pronged structure takes the form of a pyramid, one that grows wider at the bottom, and thrives with the supply of new recruits to the scheme. Here, the recruitment fees collected from new recruits are used to pay the recruiting commissions to earlier recruits. Thus, the Securities Regulation Code requires that these securities are duly registered and that the concerned corporation and/or its agents have appropriate registration and/or license to sell such securities to the public pursuant to Sections 8 and 28 of the SRC. Per records of the Commission, AVZ VENTURES/AVZVENTURES, INC. is not authorized to solicit investments from the public as this entity did not secure prior registration and/or license to solicit investment from the Commission as prescribed under Section 8 of the Securities Regulation Code. The public is hereby informed that * * Note from the Publisher: Copied verbatim from the official document. Those who act as salesmen, brokers, dealers or agents of the said entity in selling or convincing people to invest in the investment scheme it is being offered including soliciting investments or recruiting investors through the internet may be held criminally liable under Section 28 of the SRC and penalized with a maximum fine of Five Million Pesos (Php5,000,000.00) or imprisonment of Twenty One (21) years or both pursuant to Section 73 of the SRC (SEC vs. Oudine Santos, G.R. No. 195542, 19 March 2014) . Furthermore, the names of all those involved will be reported to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) so that the appropriate penalties and/or taxes be correspondingly assessed. In view thereof, the public is hereby advised to exercise caution in dealing with any individual or group of persons soliciting investments for and on behalf of AVZ VENTURES/AVZVENTURES, INC. The public is further advised NOT TO INVEST or to STOP INVESTING in the investment scheme being offered by the subject entity or its representatives. Should you have any information regarding the operation of the subject entity, please email the Enforcement and Investor Protection Department (EIPD) at [emailprotected] . For the guidance of the public. Pasay City, February 15, 2022.