Agency owner denies knowing 2 Filipina staffers recruited for bogus jobs

By Vir B. Lumicao 

Ebrahim denies knowing her 2 Filipina staff were offering fake jobs

An employment agency owner said she didn’t fire her two Filipina staff after discovering they were recruiting people for non-existent jobs in Hong Kong and Macau in 2019, because she wanted them to refund the applicants’ money first.

Lennis Ebrahim took the witness stand today, Dec 20, in the District Court, accused of using false trade descriptions and money laundering along with Marijane Biscocho. The trial is being held at West Kowloon Court before Judge Kathie Cheung.

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Ebrahim also denied going into hiding after the job applicants began chasing WHT Consulting in Kwun Tong in 2019, which renamed itself Remy Consulting and moved to To Kwa Wan, for the promised jobs.

She said she was not aware Biscocho and another Filipina staff, Nympha Lumatac, had recruited for those jobs because she mostly stayed at home and went to the office only on Sundays and holidays.

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Ebrahim, 55, who said she was just a consultant of WHT and Remy, said she first heard about the activities of full-time employee Lumatac and part-time staff Biscocho when the applicants became restive.

Ebrahim and Biscocho are being tried in the District Court on a charge each of accepting illegal payment for the bogus jobs and laundering some $700,000 of the collected money in Hong Kong banks.

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Biscocho faces 20 charges including violation of the Trade Description Ordinance by wrongly accepting payment for a product, and money laundering.

Her co-employee Lumatac evaded arrest by fleeing to the Philippines via Macau when the alleged victims demanded a refund of their money.

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Eleven applicants accused Biscocho and Ebrahim of charging at least $12,000 each for such jobs as gardeners, welders, drivers, printers and field workers in Hong Kong and Macau that offered $7,000 to $13,000. They applied for relatives and friends.

Only seven of them, Rosalina Agcalis, Jocelyn Domingo, Nena Castro, Maria Aurora Lagura, Jovelyn Villaflor, Mary Joy Liggayu and Preciosa Abellera testified for the prosecution.

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Ebrahim took over the witness stand from Biscocho, 44, who finished giving evidence last Friday after several days of testimony.

At the witness stand, Biscocho answered every question by her Legal Aid lawyer Phil Chau, SC, simply with “yes” or “know” and by saying she only followed orders from Ebrahim.

She used the same strategy in replying to the prosecutor, who said in frustration that as the manager of the shop she should have been familiar with the standard employment contract for domestic helpers, but used the same document for the supposedly skilled applicants.

Ebrahim hides her face as she steps out of the courtroom after her testimony

At her turn to testify, the tall and slim Ebrahim spoke Cantonese as she fielded questions by Legal Aid-provided lawyer Shaun Kelly about her role in the alleged job scam.

Under questioning by Kelly, the defendant denied it was her handwriting that was on the documents submitted by the alleged victims as evidence.

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“That’s not my handwriting. I usually put my initials next to the chop,” she replied when Kelly showed her a job application by Philippines-based Mario Liggayu.

One time, Ebrahim said she received a call from Biscocho about the visa applications of some applicants for welder and field worker jobs being rejected by Immigration.

“She gave me a couple of names and I wrote them down. I told her we need to refund these people,” she said.

Then she reportedly told Biscocho to tell the applicants to wait three to four weeks as she used her savings and borrowed money from a friend to refund $31,000.

The trial continues.