Local News

Korean wanted for telco fraud face deportation

Reynaldo G. Navales

THE Bureau of Immigration BI said another South Korean is facing deportation for his alleged involvement in telecommunications fraud.

Commissioner Jaime Morente said the BI Fugitive Search Unit (FSU) identified the fugitive as 48-year-old Song Chaehyok.

The alien was arrested on Thursday inside a luxury condominium suite in Taguig City by BI men armed with a warrant of deportation.

Morente issued the summary deportation order that the BI Board of Commissioners issued against the said South Korean in 2018 for being an undesirable alien.

As a result of the deportation order, Song was placed in the immigration blacklist which perpetually bans him from re-entering the Philippines.

BI-FSU Acting Chief Rendel Ryan Sy said Song is subject of an Interpol red notice that was issued by the Interpol in 2018 after he was charged with fraud before a district court in Jeonju, South Korea.

Sy said a warrant of arrest was also issued against Song by the said court.

Song allegedly belong to a syndicate that engages in voice phishing to defraud its victims.

Information obtained from the Interpol’s National Central Bureau in Manila disclosed that in 2015 to 2016, Song and his cohorts operated their scheme, making random calls to their victims in Korea.

The victims were allegedly enticed to remit their money to the syndicate’s bank accounts as the phone callers pretended that they were bank officers soliciting investments from the public.

It is estimated that the syndicate’s earnings from the racket amounted to 5.8 billion KRW, or roughly more than US$4.6 million.

Song is currently detained at the BI Warden Facility in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City pending his deportation.

Cebu City Mayor Michael “Mike” Rama.

Ombudsman suspends Rama for 6 months

BSP: Protect your money, use bank services

Maricel Soriano says condo unit in leaked PDEA docs sold in 2012

Trillanes: Police officials recruiting for destabilization plot vs Marcos

PH inflation for April 2024 stands at 3.8 percent