AN investor of delisted firm Calata Corp. has asked the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to do its part in flagging a planned cryptocurrency offer.
Alfred Reiterer, chairman of Foreign Investors Advisory Group Ltd., and represents the group of complaining shareholders in Calata, said his group has yet to see any advisory from the SEC warning the public about the Calata’s initial coin offer (ICO).
“In the meantime, Mr. Calata [referring to Calata Corp. Chairman Joseph Calata] has started a marketing campaign on Facebook and is even advertising via Google ads [on a newspaper—not the BusinessMirror—on the coin offer]. I do not know if this ICO of Mr. Calata is legal or illegal, but I believe that the SEC should make a clear announcement on this matter,” Reiterer said in his letter to the SEC.
“By using a company incorporated in Hong Kong but having all employees in the Philippines, Mr. Joseph Calata definitely tries his best to avoid any kind of regulation, neither in Hong Kong nor in the Philippines,” he said in a letter to SEC Chairman Teresita Herbosa. The ICO involves Black Cell Technology Ltd., a firm that operates the agriculture-related Krops, a mobile application that Calata earlier launched Krops in the Philippines, and which shares the same address with Calata. That firm is offering to the public 6.4 million tokens priced at 0.00105 etherium coins, or at $0.70 apiece. An etherium is one of the cryptocurrencies available to the public.
Reiterer said this should amount to P250 million in the local currency.
“I am sure that the SEC will protect the investing public based on Philippine law and regulations and I trust in your wisdom and integrity to make the right decisions,” Reiterer said in his letter. Last October Calata dangled to its minority shareholders an exchange of Calata shares to cryptocurrency after the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) moved to have the company delisted after its owner and namesake traded company shares without the proper disclosure with the PSE, in violation of rules on trading undisclosed corporate developments.