Alleged swindlers nabbed for stealing P8.3M from retired Bataan OFW

Suspected swindlers Jonathan Asuncion (left) and Antonio Laugan (center) were brought to Camp Tolentino, the police headquarters in Balanga City. Photo by Greg Refraccion INQ

BALANGA CITY – The police on Wednesday (April 18) arrested two suspected swindlers for stealing P8.3 million from a retired migrant worker who spent 32 years in various oil and gas fields in the Middle East, Europe and Asia.

Antonio Laugan and Jonathan Asuncion, who went by the name, “Engr. Luis de Guia,” reportedly lured Leonardo Austria, 62, into investing in a bogus tuna import-export deal in November 2017.

Laugan and Asuncion were arrested in Caloocan City on Wednesday, according to SPO1 Joseph Mejia, a member of the Bataan unit of the Police Criminal Investigation and Detective Group that tracked down the suspects. The police are searching for three other accomplices.

The suspects learned about Austria’s assets and basic information through social media site, Facebook, by studying posts made by his daughter, the police said.

The suspects then approached Austria in November 2017 and enticed him to invest in a “tuna premium fish processing enzyme.” The commodity turned out to be boxes of corn starch.

Austria said, “They suddenly arrived at my home. They spoke well and I assumed they were genuine businessmen.”

Laugan and Asuncion have been detained at the Balanga City Jail and were charged with large scale estafa.

Chief Insp. Rex Perucho, officer-in-charge of CIDG Bataan, said the suspects have been targeting retired overseas workers in Metro Manila, Central Luzon, and the Southern Tagalog provinces./lb