Agri Marine Ventures: SEC has Issued a Warning about an MLM Ponzi Scam? Uncovering the Sham
On its website, Agri Marine Ventures does not list ownership or leadership information. The domain name “agrimarineventures.com” for Agri Marine Ventures‘ website was privately registered on January 8th, 2023.
Agri Marine Ventures posts an incorporation certificate for “Agrimarine Harvesting Services National” on its website to appear authentic. On January 5th, 2023, Agrimarine Harvesting Services National was ostensibly incorporated in the Philippines.
It’s unclear whether the business is connected to Agri Marine Ventures. Yet, con artists can easily add fake information to shell corporations. Basic incorporation in any jurisdiction is worthless for MLM due diligence purposes. Agri Marine Ventures does, however, seem to have connections to the Philippines.
The Philippine SEC issued a fraud alert for Agri Marine Ventures securities on February 28.
| The aforementioned scheme involving AGRI MARINE VENTURES and ART BERROYA appears to be fraudulent because it involves soliciting the public to buy unregistered securities and/or offering and/or selling those securities. The sale of securities to the public by AGRI MARINE VENTURES concerning ART BERROYA was conducted without the necessary secondary license, and the aforementioned schemes will never be able to obtain the required license or permit. This activity violates Sections 8, 12, and 26 of the Securities Regulation Code (SRC). |
Art Capunitan Berroya is named President and CEO of Agri Marine Ventures by the Philippine SEC. The Agrimarine Harvesting Services National incorporation certificate uses the same name.
There is a Facebook profile with the same name as Art Berroya but other than two newly added photographs, the profile is empty. This indicates that the profile was either deleted or intentionally made to promote Agri Marine Ventures.
On January 18, 2023, a promotional film for the MLM scam was posted to YouTube, allegedly starring Berroya. The video, which pretends to have been shot in the Philippines, shows Berroya acting like a farmer.
Always consider joining and/or giving any money to an MLM firm very carefully if it is not transparent about who owns or runs it.
What is a Ponzi Scheme?
A Ponzi scheme is a criminal deception investing fraud pledging increased rates of interest with less chance of loss to investors. On the other hand, a Ponzi scam is a deceitful investing fraud that induces retrievals for earlier investors with money carried from later investors.
Products of Agri Marine Ventures
There are no retail goods or services offered by Agri Marine Ventures. Only the Agri Marine Ventures affiliate membership itself may be promoted by affiliates.
Compensation Plan for Agri Marine Ventures
Affiliates of Agri Marine Ventures make investments with the intention of passive income:
| Plan | Invest | Receive | Duration |
| Marine Farming 500 | 500 PHP | 1000 PHP | 30 days |
| Marine Farming 1000 | 1000 PHP | 2000 PHP | 30 days |
| Marine Farming 2000 | 2000 PHP | 4000 PHP | 30 days |
| Marine Farming 3000 | 3000 PHP | 6000 PHP | 30 days |
| Marine Farming 5000 | 5000 PHP | 10,000 PHP | 30 days |
| Marine Farming 8000 | 8000 PHP | 16,000 PHP | 30 days |
| Marine Farming 9000 | 9000 PHP | 18,000 PHP | 30 days |
| Agri Farming 10000 | 10,000 PHP | 20,000 PHP | 30 days |
| Agri Farming 20000 | 20,000 PHP | 40,000 PHP | 30 days |
| Agri Farming 50000 | 50,000 PHP | 50,000 PHP | 30 days |
| Agri Farming 100000 | 100,000 PHP | 100,000 PHP | 30 days |
| Agri Farming 200000 | 200,000 PHP | 200,000 PHP | 30 days |
Please be aware that Agri Marine Ventures assesses a 10% withdrawal fee. Agri Marine Ventures‘ MLM division compensates for the acquisition of affiliate investors.
Commissions for Referrals
Agri Marine Ventures uses a unilevel compensation structure to pay referral commissions on invested capital. An affiliate is put at the head of a unilevel team in a unilevel pay system, and each affiliate they recruited is positioned immediately under them (level 1):
New affiliates brought on by any level 1 affiliates are added to the original affiliate’s unilevel team at level 2. If any level 2 affiliates bring on new affiliates, they are promoted to level 3, and so on down a theoretically endless number of levels. Payable unilevel team levels are limited by Agri Marine Ventures to 10.
The following describes how referral commissions are distributed as a percentage of the money invested over these ten levels:
| Level 1 (personally recruited affiliates) | Levels 2 to 5 | Levels 6 to 10 |
| 10% if invested at the Marine Farming tier, 15% if invested at the Agri Farming tier | 0.5% | 1% |
Matrix Cycler
Agri Marine Ventures appears to have a secondary investment opportunity in addition to its flagship 22 matrix cycler.
Once an associate has completed the following:
5000 PHP in level 1 referral commissions or completed a 30-day investment cycle (personally recruited affiliates). Affiliates are charged an additional 200 PHP for their cycler position if they meet the requirements through investment. If an affiliate meets the requirements through referral commissions, the position is given away without charge.
An affiliate is positioned at the top of a 22 matrix, with two positions immediately behind them:
The matrix’s initial level is made up of these two locations. These initial two locations are divided into two more positions each to create the second level of the matrix. As other affiliates meet the qualifications for positions, spaces in the matrix are filled.
Once filling every position in the matrix, an 1800 PHP cycle commission is given out. To pay for a new cycler position, where the hiring procedure is repeated, 200 PHP is withheld.
Agri Marine Ventures Recruitment
Affiliate membership with Agri Marine Ventures is free. The associated income opportunity demands a minimum commitment of 500 PHP to participate fully.
Conclusion
The marketing gimmick used by Agri Marine Ventures is the claim that agricultural activities produce outside revenue. This begs the question: Why does it require your money if farming already exists?
Notwithstanding the unlikely possibility that random farming in the Philippines would produce 200% a month. If that were the case, wouldn’t the farmers themselves already be billionaires?
The SEC of the Philippines has issued a fraud warning, thus the obvious response is that there is no outside income. Everything about it is theatre. Currently, new investment is the only provable source of income entering Agri Marine Ventures.
It is a Ponzi scheme since it uses fresh investment to give affiliates a monthly Return of 200%.
The SEC has issued a warning to the CEO of Agri Marine for promoting fake schemes thus it is very much clear that the firm isn’t trustworthy for investing and has got a criminal past so make sure you don’t invest your money with this fraudster, and avoid them. And also the fact that if the firm was going to generate millions after investing then why aren’t they looking like a well-established firm, so all they want is your money and none of the schemes are going to provide any profit, avoid Agri Marine at all costs.
Agri Marines provides a commission-based program where you will be earning money after referring the products to any members or say you can bring any new member to the company then you will be given some % of commission over the amount he had invested in the company, but the game isn’t the same as it is explained they are not going to send you the money immediately they will start giving you targets for adding more members then only your previous payments will be transferred, I have seen several members waiting for their funds but Agri Marines isn’t passing their funds to their accounts, make sure you won’t get involved to the scam and waste your time, they aren’t trustworthy and would never provide you the profit after investing, make sure you are not getting any attraction from the schemes of the firm, they all are designed to get your money and then not responding to your returns and will make you feel helpless, so red flag for Agri Marines from my side.
This man isn’t trustable because the company’s profile isn’t reliable because the firm is making several promises on their paper schemes but the reality would be different as the company’s presence on the internet is very low, if you will keep on checking their page you will find very members have visited their page and none of them has promoted them for investing, and in the article itself author is mentioning theme as one of the ponzi schemes, though it would be better if we will avoid thesis firm for any investment so make sure your money isn’t wasted behind this man so avoid this man for any investment, Agri Marine isn’t trustworthy after watching their promotional videos it can be observed that they aren’t interested in profiting their investors but in getting their money is their primary objective. We need to ensure our friends and family members don’t follow any of the schemes of Agri Marines. It would be better to follow a better firm and ask for better investment opportunities, wasting your money behind these scammers isn’t a good choice, I have seen several investors regret investing with nefarious firms, MLM scams are also the most trending news nowadays, if you want to get your name added to the list of victims then you are most welcomed.