Tuesday, September 25, 2007
NBI nabs Nigerian over fake US traveler’s checks
FALSIFICATION charges were filed yesterday against a foreigner who has been allegedly encashing forged American Express traveler’s checks since last month.
Onel Foxx Jackson, who claims to be an American, encashed a series of the fake checks at the Adventure International Tours Inc., the local travel representative of American Express in the Philippines, and was able to walk away with $6,000.
He would have walked away with over $3,450 last Friday had the (National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), previously alerted of the scam, not stepped in.
The US embassy has certified that there is no American by the name of Onel Foxx Jackson in the country. NBI investigators have instead uncovered him to be one Antonio Foxx Onome of Nigeria.
Jackson, or Onome, refused to comment when interviewed at the NBI headquarters yesterday, where he is detained pending turnover to the Bureau of Immigration.
In their affidavit, NBI agents Rennan Oliva, Jesus Manapat, Gregorio Algoso and Bernard de la Cruz said they confiscated a total of 15 forged American Express checks from Jackson during his arrest last Friday.
The agents, all lawyers except Algoso who is a certified public accountant, then read him his rights, took him into custody and prepared the complaint.
Miluz Rivera, branch manager of the Adventure International Tours, said they were belatedly informed that the checks Jackson had been exchanging for cash at their office were fake.
She said they only received the notice from the American Express last Sept. 20.
In the same afternoon, however, Jackson came to encash a few more checks.
They asked him to return the following morning because there wasn’t enough cash in their vaults.
Rivera said they immediately contacted the NBI and provided details that led to an entrapment plan.
Ann Miller Cañizares, a cashier at the Adventure International Tours, described the entrapment in a separate affidavit.
Jackson, she narrated, came in around 10 a.m. and handed the checks over. But when she called the American Express Manila office for approval, Jackson suddenly became uneasy and asked that the transaction be cancelled.
The agents of the NBI, who she didn’t even know were present, appeared to take the stunned Jackson, or Onome, away. (KNR)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (September 25, 2007 issue)
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