MANILA – The Bureau of Immigration said it arrested two Koreans in Pampanga over the weekend for their alleged involvement in overseas fraud.
The arrest of Kwon Junyoung, 38, and Seok Jongmin, 48, in Barangay Cuayan, Angeles City last Saturday was made by operatives of the BI’s Fugitive Search Unit upon the request of South Korea and the United States.
Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco said Kwon was charged with telecommunications fraud in South Korea, while Seok was allegedly involved in wire fraud, money laundering and identity theft in Texas.
The Suwon District Court in Korea issued an arrest warrant for Kwon in December 2019, after prosecutors alleged he was a member of a China-based telecoms syndicate “that made calls to victims through a scheme known as voice phishing”.
“The victims were reportedly harassed and tricked into depositing their money into the syndicate’s accounts, as the callers pretended to be investigators from the Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office,” immigration officials said.
Meanwhile, Seok was the subject of an arrest warrant issued by the US District Court in West Texas, where he is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, three counts of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and three counts of aggravated identity theft.
Immigration said Seok allegedly conspired with other criminals to use the stolen personal information of “thousands of US military veterans to access US Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs websites, causing the victims to lose their benefits”.
Tansingco said the two would be deported, adding that they would be blacklisted and banned from re-entering the Philippines.
