The Bureau of Immigration (BI) deported on Thursday, nine Japanese nationals, who are fugitives wanted by authorities in Tokyo for involvement in a big-time telecommunications fraud.
Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said the deportees boarded a Japan Airlines flight to Narita which left the Ninoy Aquino Interntional Airport shortly after 10 a.m.
They were escorted on their flight by Japanese policemen who earlier arrived in Manila to fetch them, Morente said.
“All of them are now banned from re-entering the Philippines as a result of their inclusion in our immigration blacklist of undesirable aliens,” the BI Chief added.
Those deported were identified as Mishima Takumi, Tabata Ryota, Kawasaki Ryuto, Irabu Shioki, Onishi Shunsuke, Omata Kenta, Sato Takatoku, Hashizumi Ryushin, and Mitani Ren.
They were expelled pursuant to a summary deportation order that the BI Board of Commissioners issued against them on December 5, 2019, after they were arrested by BI operatives in Makati City.
Records show that deportees were among 34 Japanese nationals arrested on November 13, 2019 by operatives from the BI Fugitive Search Unit (FSU) inside a hotel in Makati City where they were caught in the act of engaging in voice phishing and telephone fraud activities.
Japanese authorities alleged that those arrested were members of an organized crime syndicate that perpetrated a fraudulent scheme that victimized many unsuspecting Japanese citizens.
They allegedly defrauded their victims of roughly two billion yen, equivalent to about a billion pesos, causing significant damage to Japanese society.
They preyed on their victims, who were picked randomly, through voice phishing, which is the use of fraudulent phone calls to trick people into giving money or revealing personal information. The scam perpetrator is usually someone pretending to represent a trusted institution, company, or government agency.