A Taiwanese and a South Korean are facing deportation for being fugitives from justice in their homelands, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) reported on Monday.
In a statement, Commissioner Norman Tansingco said 44-year-old Taiwanese national Li Ming Hsiu was arrested in Makati City on March 5 while 39-year-old South Korean Joo Han Wong was apprehended on March 6 in Taguig City by operatives from the BI’s fugitive search unit (FSU).
Both are presently detained at the BI warden facility in Taguig City while awaiting deportation.
The Taichung district prosecutor’s office in Taiwan is looking for Liu, according to acting BI-FSU chief Rendel Ryan Sy.
Prosecutors allege that Liu is a ranking member of a syndicate involved in large-scale money laundering since last year, when it operated multiple scamming centers in Taiwan and abroad that defrauded victims of more than PHP78 billion through its fraudulent schemes.
Meanwhile, Joo is the subject of a red notice from the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) after the Seoul Dongbu district court issued a warrant for his arrest on cybercrime charges.
Joo allegedly conspired with other suspects in developing a computer program that was used to hack and illegally obtain personal information from over 66,500 personal messaging application accounts.
The victims’ data was eventually sold to a third party, which used it to employ voice phishing and other telecom fraud activities.
Liu and Joo are already undocumented aliens, as their passports were already revoked by their respective governments. They will also be included in the BI blacklist to prevent them from re-entering the Philippines.
Meanwhile, BI officers at the Clark International Airport (CIA) intercepted three females who attempted to illegally work as entertainers in South Korea.
The BI’s immigration protection and border enforcement section (I-PROBES) reported that the victims initially claimed to be friends bound for Thailand as tourists on March 10 together with another female companion.
Immigration officers noted conflicting statements and referred them for secondary inspection.
During the interview, they admitted that their companion was actually their recruiter, and they were bound for South Korea, where they were promised to work as singers with a monthly salary of PHP40,000.
The victims added that they wanted to process their documents legally, but their recruiter insisted that they pose as tourists and hide their final country of destination.
All of them were turned over to the Inter-Agency Council against Trafficking (IACAT), while their recruiter would face charges. (PNA)
