The noose is slowly tightening around the neck of Maria Francesca “Mica” Tan, the CEO of MFT Group of Companies, who is…

The noose is slowly tightening around the neck of Maria Francesca “Mica” Tan, the CEO of MFT Group of Companies, who is facing charges for illegal investment solicitation and syndicated swindling or “estafa.”

At the request of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) issued last week a red notice against her, which authorizes law enforcement authorities in any part of the world where she may be found to arrest her and bring her back to the Philippines to answer those charges.

Without prior SEC authority, her company is accused of soliciting investments that promised returns of 12 percent to 18 percent, an investment strategy akin to a Ponzi scheme, where returns are paid using funds collected from new investors rather than from legitimate business operations.

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The scheme eventually collapses when new funds stop coming and the “unpaid” investors are left holding the proverbial empty bag.

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Tan left the country to escape her arrest and her whereabouts at present are unknown. Last month, she said her creditors would not get paid if she were detained and so they should work with her to find a solution to the problem.

In effect, she was saying that her failure to deliver the returns she promised was caused by the investors’ filing a complaint against her and the company. Hence, they should withdraw the complaint if they want their money back.

What a delusional sense of entitlement! She is blaming her victims for getting caught picking their pockets.

Tan’s case brings to mind the Ponzi schemes that drew wide public attention many years ago, which resulted in the enactment of measures to deter their recurrence and the imposition of heavy penalties for their commission.

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Those schemes attracted people who had some money to spare for investment, but were discouraged from depositing it in banks due to low interest rates.

Retirees who had received substantial retirement or separation benefits from their former employers became easy prey because of the promise of high returns that were “validated” by photos and testimonies of supposedly earlier investors.

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The high level of patronage that those schemes enjoyed may be attributed to greed mentality or the desire to make a fast buck with the least effort by the targeted market.

When the promised returns had stopped coming and repeated requests for payment went unanswered, that was the only time the unpaid investors sought relief from the government.

And often that action was too late because the people behind the scam had left the country or if they were still around, did not have any money left to return the investments.

Recall that the SEC, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and several business organizations repeatedly warned the public about those schemes and the ingenious ways used to encourage investment.

The mantra used to alert possible victims was “if it’s too good to be true, then it is not true.” The campaign proved to be effective then, because for a time, there were few or hardly any reported incidents of Ponzi-like schemes.

With the emergence of Tan’s case to public view, it looks like those scams have gained a new lease in life in a manner or form that has made some people lower their guard and ignore earlier warnings about them.

What makes this problem more alarming is the ease with which unauthorized promotion and solicitation of investments can be done through slick posts on social media.

Although from time to time, the SEC and other government regulatory offices had been able to spot those illegal activities and had taken action against them, the scam appears to have assumed new shapes and taken new strategies to hoodwink unsuspecting victims.

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It’s déjà vu in Tan’s case. Sadly, the lessons from the past had been lost for the people who fell for her investment solicitation. INQ