(this company even had their own basketball championship.  Division B champs of 2005 Metrobasketball, with guy holding trophy (without hat) said to be owner Cyrus Hao)

Back in mid January of 2008, I was contacted by a friend and associate in a former business endeavor (which faded to fad status).  We were not in contact for about 5 years now, and I was surprised to hear excitement from his tone about "this new business that will change your life".  Being frank, I said outright that i was not interested in any pyramiding scheme or MLMs.  Being a freind, he convinced me to have a sit down and hear him out.

I will be filling this article with mixes of research and his inputs on his company, so don't worry that the "facts" below may seem incoherent or inconsistent, because that's the way it hit me.

The company he works for is Royal Manchester Five, also called RMF Trading Corporation.  Although he really doesn't work there, because he was just asked to help out by his close friend who recruited him.  Their office is in One San Miguel, Pasig.

Minimum is P100,000 though, locked up for 6 months. They will give you post-dated checks which gives you 4% a month and the last 4% including the principal on the 6th month. (So if you deposit P100k, they give you P4k a month for the 1st 5 months, and P104k on the 6th month). At least those were the terms back then, it was now down to "only" 3% this time.

If I hurry, I may be eligible to join the raffle for a brand new BMW series whatever. Every 100,000 investment entitles you to one raffle ticket.

Said friend even showed me how he started only late 2006, and was already able to buy a Fortuner.  I don't know the veracity of his claims to buy a car, because his previous status only put him in the "incapable" stage due to his level of income.  So that was his come on "look at me I bought a car in just a few months, and now building a house somewhere".  Take note that since I personally know him, the principal amount may not be enough to splurge on a japormsed car, start building a house, and feed a family.  It is just too good to be true.  His overall appearance was now markedly improved: nice pen, nice watch, nice set of clothes, new laptop.

As early as 2007, some other local forums researched their company in the SEC to be licensed only to deal with automobiles, and not financial investments nor lending.  When confronted with this, said friend said that supposedly, there was a law that states that before you are granted such license, you should already be a group of 5 companies, or something like that. Hmmmm. So now there are two companies, RMF and ABBA-DEO PRIME EXPRESS CORPORATION.

Said friend's sales pitch was also found in Philmug in this link. His message on said site goes like this:

I have been investor of this corporation for almost 2 years and so far so good.
This corporation gives me and my family a lot of help financially actually my brand new Toyota fortuner came this corporation as fruit of my investment.
Before we invested on this corporation, we (my friends conducted research and investigation ) and the result gave us GO signal that it’s legitimate and safe especially from SEC registration, business permits from the municipality of PASIG and MANDALUYONG. BIR registered. You can also check their registration from SEC thru online. Just log to www. sec.gov.ph then search for the reserved/registered corporate name. Type ROYAL MANCHESTER FIVE TRADING CORP and ABBA-DEO PRIME EXPRESS CORPORATION on the search bar. Don’t forget to click the “start with the given phrase”

This is a 100% Filipino owned Corporation. Operated their business for more that 6 years and still growing. They are planning to extend another 2 more corporation by the year 2008.

To know more about this corporations (source of income, schemes, incorporation, etc), please email me at name wittheld

If you want to experience what i have accomplished, this is the right investment / corporation for you..

Thanks and GOD BLESS

and later on he replies to a scam insinuation 

it's not pyramiding, networking nor scam…. no pyramiding will last 6 years in business since pyramiding depends on their downline…. think again…..

we have our option either stock our hardly earn money in banks with 2.25 percent per annum (basically specially accounts, trust funds… etc are not under PDIC… please read the policy of the agreement you are signing in carefully… ) there is no guarantee in this life other than from our LORD GOD…

About the word "FEAR"
"The Wright Brother didn't take risk flying their prototype plane, we probably don't have airplane nowadays" Life is risky but riskier if we live in fear taking any risk.

The problem with our mentality is that we always generalize everybody when one made a fault. Though SCAMS are true exist but there are legimate corporations to trust with that we discriminate….because of this mentality…

Just an input…just sharing the opportunity….for grabs.. coz time is ticking…. and we can't turn back the clock again…. your future depends on your decision making….

BTW…. if you have time, try reading the book "RICH DAD, POOR DAD" by robert kiyosaki available at NAtional bookstore.

These are the very same things he told me, so I'd much rather quote directly from him.  When I asked where do these investments go to, he answered foreign real estate (oh no, has he heard of subprime?), forex (for readers who do not know, I tried forex and lost).  Stressing on the forex angle, he explains that there are 20 experienced traders handling this forex account managing our funds wisely.  There were other financial jargon thrown in that did not pass my scrutiny.

So I asked for transparency.  "Do you guys have a record of exact percentage on what amount goes to which sector", and "trackable performance growth"?  It would have been a fairy tale had he said yes, instead he replied, "I'm sorry but that's a secret, you have to understand, if we give away our secrets, we can be copied easily".  At that point, he obviously did not know the extent of the product he was selling, and drastically failed in the financial know how angle.

There was also a powerpoint presentation, which seemed to be a litany of  lures and financial jargon leading to nowhere. "do you want to remain trapped… etc."  "do you want income… etc".  He could not even forward to me a copy of this PPT.

Yet another clincher was when he showed me the checks he got from the company.  Photocopies of the checks and then post dated amounts labeled "received" were not even duly signed and issued via OR official Receipt!

Strange Lines uttered by my friend:

• Bata pa lang 'tong Cyrus, millionaire na. (referring to Cyrus Hao, 28 year old owner of the company) "Cyrus is still young and yet is already a millionaire"
• hindi tayo lolokohin ni Cyrus.  "Cyrus will not scam us"

Anyway, the fact that said company was already existing for five years did not hold any merit for them as a financial company, because they are only registered to be an automobile related company.  Their forex selling point lacked transparency, and companies like these should be duly registered to protect investors by insuring your money.  Meaning, the company should have paid a bond or insurance to a third party bank in case something goes wrong.  At least that is how legitimate financial lending should work.

So it was a big NO for me, and back in January 23, 2008, I asked our forum if this company was a scam.   It's good that our niche members are generally smart thinkers and did not fall prey to this company.  I hesitated to label them a scam because I had no proof and it was a courtesy to my friend, but it is now in the papers that there are now complaints of bouncing checks. article 1. article 2. Among RMF’s reported victims were basketball players Johnny Abarrientos, Rafi Reavis, Mark Macapagal and Edward Juinio, coach Eric Altamirano and actor Rustom Padilla.

Officials of Royal Manchester Five Trading Corp. say they could not locate the company’s president, Cyrus Yap Hao, who hails from Pilar, Sorsogon; and Renato San Juan, its vice president for marketing.

Both were said to have fled the country on Tuesday, leaving their investors holding checks that have been dishonored.

RMF records show that its investors placed P2.1 billion in peso and dollar accounts with the company, which holds office on the 15th floor of One San Miguel Condominium on San Miguel Avenue, Ortigas.

Some P400 million in new investments that came in during a company raffle on Feb. 29 have also disappeared.  

In that raffle, RMF tapped jazz singer Jaya to entertain the investors, who were offered the chance to win two BMW 320s if they would put in P500,000 to qualify for a raffle ticket. But it turned out the company financed the purchase of only one car; the other could not be claimed by the winner because it had only been reserved for P50,000, according to company insiders who requested anonymity.

The company’s other officers—vice presidents Joesedev Colina, Edwin Rosas and Joseph Bualoy, and vice president for finance Rowena Uy—claim they have also been cheated, but the investors say they do not believe them.

While it is a relief for me that my friend's name has not been mentioned in any articles, I hope he is doing okay.  My very friendly advise for him just a month ago was keep his eyes open and liquidate as much from this as possible and invest only a little (since he was already in it).  "Don't go all in, pare," I said with concern and suspicion for the company.

As of now, my friend could no longer be contacted via his celfphone or landline.  

Related Posts You May Wanna Read Too

• No Related Post