DAVAO CITY — A Taiwanese and a South Korean are facing deportation for being fugitives from justice in their homelands, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) reported on Monday.
Commissioner Norman Tansingco in a statement identified the fugitives as 44-year-old Taiwanese national Li Ming Hsiu was arrested in Makati City on March 5. while 39-year-old South Korean Joo Han Wong was apprehended on March 6 in Taguig City by operatives from the BI’s fugitive search unit (FSU).
Both are presently detained at the BI warden facility in Taguig City while awaiting deportation.
immigration officer Rendel Ryan Sy said Liu is wanted by the Taichung district prosecutor’s office in Taiwan for money laundering.
Prosecutors alleged that Liu is a ranking member of a syndicate involved in large-scale money laundering since last year when it operated multiple scamming centers in Taiwan and abroad that defrauded victims of more than PHP78 billion through its fraudulent schemes.
Meanwhile, Joo is the subject of a red notice from the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) after the Seoul Dongbu district court issued a warrant for his arrest on cybercrime charges.
Joo allegedly conspired with other suspects in developing a computer program that was used to hack and illegally obtain personal information from over 66,500 personal messaging application accounts.
The victims’ data were eventually sold to a third party which used it to employ voice phishing and other telecom fraud activities.
Liu and Joo are already undocumented aliens as their passports were already revoked by their respective governments. They will also be included in the BI blacklist to prevent them from re-entering the Philippines.