No safe harbor for financial fraud

Financial crimes in the Philippines have long carried an unspoken assumption: that a well-timed disappearance buys permanent escape. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is systematically dismantling that assumption.

On 25 May 2026, Interpol published a red notice against Maria Francesca Tan, chief executive officer of MFT Group of Companies Inc., at the SEC’s request. The notice alerts law enforcement agencies worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a wanted individual pending extradition. It is a direct consequence of the SEC’s pursuit of accountability for one of the country’s most brazen investment fraud cases.

The facts are damning. MFT Group, which later rebranded as Foundry Ventures I Inc., lured investors with guaranteed returns of 12 to 18 percent, promising their money would finance subsidiaries’ purchase orders.

Prosecutors have described it as a Ponzi scheme that uses fresh investor contributions to pay returns to earlier investors until the cycle inevitably collapses, leaving all the investors with nothing.

The SEC filed a criminal complaint before the Department of Justice in April 2024. By May 2025, state prosecutors had indicted Tan, along with other officers of MFT Group and Foundry Ventures, for violations of the Securities Regulation Code: selling unregistered securities, engaging in fraudulent transactions, and operating as unregistered brokers.

A Taguig City Regional Trial Court issued a warrant for her arrest. A Lipa City court followed with a syndicated estafa warrant, with no bail recommended. Interpol has now joined the pursuit.

This is what serious securities enforcement looks like. 

The Securities Regulation Code is not a suggestion. Section 8 requires securities to be registered before being sold to the public. Section 26 prohibits fraud and deception in any investment transaction. Section 28 mandates registration for anyone buying or selling securities on behalf of others. These are not technicalities. They are the foundational protections standing between ordinary investors and those who would exploit their trust.    

The SEC’s enforcement mandate does not end with investment fraud. Insider trading, market manipulation, false disclosures, and corporate governance violations are equally in its sights.

The commission is building the institutional capacity, legal framework, interagency partnerships, and international cooperation mechanisms needed to pursue financial criminals across borders and across years. The red notice against Tan is not an endpoint. It is a demonstration of capability and a warning to those who believe distance or delay can substitute for accountability.

This matters beyond any single case. Capital markets do not function on rules alone. They function on trust. Investors make decisions based on a fundamental belief that the system is fair, disclosures are honest, and those who cheat will face consequences.

When that belief is eroded, capital retreats, markets thin, and the broader economy pays for the sins of a few. The development of deep, inclusive Philippine capital markets depends on enforcement that is credible, consistent, and unrelenting.

Every case filed, every warrant served, and every red notice issued tells the investing public that the rules have teeth. That trust is not given freely. It is earned case by case, warrant by warrant, and, when necessary, red notice by red notice.

There is no safe harbor for financial fraud. Not anywhere. Especially not in the Philippines.