MANILA, Philippines — Two South Koreans wanted for fraud-related activities were nabbed by the Bureau of Immigration (BI) in Pampanga over the weekend.
The BI’s Fugitive Search Unit arrested Kwon Junyoung and Seok Jongmin in Angeles City, Pampanga, on Saturday.
BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco said that Kwon is wanted for telecommunications fraud in South Korea, while Seok is wanted in Texas, USA, for his engagement in wire fraud, money laundering, and identity theft.
According to the BI, information from Interpol’s National Central Bureau (NCB) in Manila showed that Kwon has an arrest warrant from Suwon District Court in South Korea issued in December 2019.
The BI said that prosecutors alleged that Kwon is a member of a telecom fraud syndicate based in Dalian, China.
The syndicate randomly calls victims through voice phishing, pretends to be investigators of the Seoul Central Prosecutor’s Office, and then harasses victims into transferring money to their accounts.
He also has an ongoing local case, the bureau added.
Seok, based on information from NCB, is the subject of an arrest warrant from a United States district court in western Texas.
He was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, three counts of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and three counts of aggravated identity theft.
The BI said that Seok allegedly conspired with other suspects in using stolen personally identifiable information of thousands of US military veterans.
They accessed the websites of the US Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, causing the victims to lose their benefits.
The BI said Seok was arrested after posting bail at the Angeles City Regional Trial Court, where he was charged with robbery extortion.
“They will soon be deported to Korea and the US as summary deportation orders were already against them by the BI board of commissioners,” Tansingco said in a statement.