PERSONNEL of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) recently arrested a Korean national wanted by authorities in his country for alleged involvement in a million-dollar investment scam.
Soung Young Ho, 51, was nabbed in a joint operation by members of the BI’s Fugitive Search Unit (FSU) and Korean authorities in Barangay Anunas, Angeles City, Pampanga.
BI Commissioner Jaime Morente said Soung will be deported for being an undesirable alien as he is a wanted fugitive.
Morente said Soung is the subject of an Interpol red notice and his passport is already undergoing cancelation by the Korean government, making him an undocumented alien as well.
“We were also informed that a warrant for his arrest was issued the Central District Court in Seoul where he was charged with large-scale fraud,” the BI chief said, adding that the Korean will be placed on the bureau’s blacklist after he is deported.
Information provided by the BI revealed that sometime in June 2015, Soung allegedly defrauded a compatriot of more than US$1.1 million after inducing the victim to invest in a casino business that purportedly was going to start operation in Clark Field, Pampanga.
The suspect reportedly enticed the victim to give him 1.3 billion won as his supposed share in the business after being promised he would receive half of the profits or revenues that would be earned from the casino operations.
Soung reportedly received the money in 48 installments between August 2015 and September 2017. It turned out, however, that the business did not operate.
Prosecutors alleged that Soung did not intend to return the victim’s money as the profits that he said would be earned from the casino’s operation could not possibly be realized.
Soung will be detained at the BI Warden Facility in Bicutan, Taguig, pending his deportation.