BI nabs South Korean wanted for telecom fraud

Bureau of Immigration in Intramuros, Manila. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/ ALEXIS CORPUZ

MANILA, Philippines — A South Korean man wanted for telecommunications fraud in his home country was arrested in Cebu, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) reported on Monday.

In a report to BI Commissioner Jaime Morente, the bureau’s fugitive search unit said that 42-year-old Jung Inhyeok was arrested in Brgy. Poblacion in San Fernando town on June 13.

The Interpol’s National Central Bureau (NCB) in Manila reported that Jung was accused of committing fraud for operating a phone scam syndicate that took 65 million Korean won or around P2,762,350 from its victims.

The crime was allegedly conducted through voice phishing, where they posed as bank officials or sellers at a call center in Thailand.

The Seoul western district court issued a warrant of arrest against Jung in April 2015, reported the Interpol NCB.

The BI said Jung’s travel record showed that he arrived in Manila as a tourist in 2017 and has been hiding since then.

“He will thus be immediately sent back to Korea as he was already ordered deported for being an undesirable, overstaying and undocumented alien,” Morente said in a statement.

Morente likewise noted that the South Korean government also revoked Jung’s passport, placing him on the immigration blacklist and prohibiting him from re-entering the country.

He will be sent to the BI warden facility in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City to await his deportation. — Xander Dave Ceballos, trainee

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JMS/abc