OFFICERS of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) have arrested a South Korean wanted by authorities in Seoul for defrauding his two compatriots of large sums of money.
Bobby Raquepo, chief of the BI Fugitive Search Unit, reported to Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente that Lee Beomseok, 42, was arrested on Thursday inside a restaurant in Angeles City.
Morente said he issued the mission order for Lee's arrest at the request of the South Korean authorities in Manila, which informed the BI that the alien is the subject of a criminal investigation for fraud in his country.
Lee is also the subject of an Interpol blue notice issued on March last year and he is already an undocumented alien due to the revocation of his passport by the Korean government, the BI chief added.
The Korean is currently detained at the BI detention facility in Bicutan, Taguig pending issuance and implementation of the order for his deportation by the bureau's board of commissioners.
"He will be placed in the immigration blacklist and banned from re-entering the Philippines," Morente said.
BI records revealed that sometime in September 2013, Lee allegedly received 25 million won, or equivalent to about US$22,000 from his first victim after persuading him to lend money for his alleged restaurant business.
The following year, Lee again reportedly enticed another victim to lend him a total of almost 280 million won, or roughly US$248,000, which the victim transferred to his bank account in several tranches.