Filipina overstayer gets 6 months for money laundering

By Vir B. Lumicao 

Vargas's friends say she claimed on Facebook to having made money from the illicit deal

A Filipina former domestic helper was sentenced today, Jun 7, to six months in jail after admitting a charge of laundering nearly $700,000 through her bank account over a 16-month period until August last year.

Kris Hope Vargas, who has been detained a month longer than her sentence, was kept in custody as she still faces another charge for overstaying her visa.

Call now!

She had earlier denied the charge of “dealing with property known or believed to represent proceeds of an indictable offence”, saying she lost her ATM card before the illegal transactions were made.

But she decided to admit the offense shortly before she was to go on trial before Magistrate Edward Wong.

CONTACT US!

After sentencing, Vargas was told she will have to return to Eastern Court on Jul 9 for the hearing of her overstaying case.  According to Immigration, she stayed illegally in Hong Kong after she was prematurely dismissed by her employer in late February last year.

Her lawyer went back to court with her after sentencing to apply for bail, but the magistrate rebuked him, saying he should have made the application before the hearing ended.

PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE

According to the charge that Vargas admitted, she used her Hang Seng bank account for multiple deposits and withdrawals totaling $694,056 between Apr 15, 2019 and August 2020.

Police investigating cases of “romance scams” pulled by unknown conmen on local women received a complaint on Feb 29, 2020 by a local man who said he was conned by a soldier in Afghanistan who became his cyber friend. The victim, Lyu Wenbo, 55, said he was asked to pay $26,559 for customs duty and delivery fee of a parcel the soldier sent to him.

The victim paid the fees asked by depositing them in Hang Seng bank account given by the culprit. But the parcel was not delivered. He complained to police and the account was traced to Vargas.

Vargas was arrested on Nov 29 last year outside Chungking Mansion in Tsim Sha Tsui. Police were alerted when the bank noticed the suspicious transactions. The illicit transactions continued even after she had gone underground after her visa lapsed on Mar 10 last year.

CALL US!

In her previous court appearance, Vargas’ lawyer told Magistrate Law that his client was not aware her ATM card was being used to move illegally acquired money. He said his client had lost the card before those transactions were made.

Tunghayan ang isa na namang kwentong Dream Love

However, some of her friends have passed on photos that Vargas had posted on Facebook, ostensibly showing her withdrawing cash that was transferred to her Hang Seng account by the unknown money launderers.

Call us!

CALL US!

PADALA NA!

Filipina DH pleads guilty to stealing employer's jewelry worth $14.6 million

By Vir B. Lumicao 

Nones celebrating a  happy occasion before her arrest

A Filipina domestic helper has admitted stealing $14.6 million worth of jewelry, gold bars and other valuables from her wealthy employers in Deepwater Bay over a period of 14 months, from June 2018 to August 2019.

Carmelita G. Nones, who is married and hails from La Union, admitted all six theft charges filed against her when she appeared in Eastern Court today, Jun 7.

Her niece, Maricris G. Nones and her cousin, Cristina N. Alagna, also pleaded guilty to acting as Nones’ accomplices by handling the goods she stole. Maricris admitted four counts of handling stolen goods, and Alagna, six.

Call now!

All three were returned to custody until their sentencing at the Court of First Instance. Magistrate Daniel Tang set a transfer hearing of the case in Eastern Court on Jun 9. 

Under Hong Kong laws, the maximum sentence for theft is ten years in jail.

A fourth accused, Carmelita’s sister, Marina G. Biala, pleaded not guilty to a charge of handling stolen goods, so her case will be sent to the District Court for trial.

PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE

Police said they found a bag containing part of the loot in Nones' bedroom in her employer’s house. The bag a watch, two bangles and necklace all worth $6,800.

Right after the four defendants were called out to the courtroom today, their lawyers led by barrister Oliver Davies said defendants Nones, M. Nones and Alagna would plead guilty to the charges and Biala would not plead guilty.

Carmelita Nones admitted to stealing about 200 jewelry pieces, gold bars and some cash from her employers, New World Development executive director David Liang and his wife Helen Frances during six different periods.

CONTACT US!

Between June 17 and July 27, 2018, she stole an assortment of jewelry including eight necklaces, seven bangles, 11 pairs of earrings, a single earring, 2 bracelets, a 50-gram gold bar and a 187-gram gold bar, 10 rings and 31 gold coins owned by Mrs Liang. The total value of the stolen goods was $6,028,000.

Some of the gold coins and gold bar recovered from a pawnshop

Between Jun 27 and Aug 11, 2019, she took two Piaget luxury watches valued at $100,000 each belonging to the Liang couple.

In the third charge which covers a period between June and December 2018, Nones stole a watch, a necklace, 2 bangles, 7 pairs of earrings, all valued at $6,800, belonging to Mrs Liang. They were recovered in a bag in Nones' room.

On Sept 5, 2019, Marina Galay Biala returned to Mrs Liang a bag that Nones had asked her to keep which contained 23 necklaces, 3 bracelets, 2 bangles, 11 pairs of earrings, 1 piece of earring, 11 pendants, 5 rings, 1 brooch, 3 watches, Chanel jewelry pieces valued at $120,000, various jewelry pieces valued at $3,000, and cash worth $4,000. The total value of the goods was $4,814,400.

Between Jun 3, 2018 and Feb 18, 2019, Nones took 6 necklaces, 9 bangles, 6 rings and 4 pairs of earrings, 2 bracelets and a pendant with a total value of $2,235,000. Between May 13 and Jun 2, 2018, she stole 3 bangles, 7 bracelets, 2 pairs of earrings, 3 single earrings, 1 pendant, 2 necklaces and 4 rings with a total value of $1,265,000 all belonging to Mrs Liang.

In all, the value of jewelry, gold bars and other ornaments that she stole was listed as  $14.6 million.

3 bangles, one diamond-studded, made up one batch

The jewelry, cash, gold bars and coins were stolen by Nones in six batches and disposed of mostly by her and with the help of Maricris and Alagna.

The evidence presented in court included 25 pawnshop receipts totaling $688,850 for the first batch of stolen items. The jewelry pieces were pawned by Nones herself.

The court was told Mrs Liang spent $891,160 to get back some of her jewelry, but not all were recovered.

CALL US!

The second batch comprised the couple’s matching Piaget watches worth $200,000. The discovery that they were missing in September 2019 was what sparked the arrest and subsequent investigation into Nones’ thefts.

One diamond necklace valued at $750,000 that was discovered missing early in the investigation wasn’t recovered from pawnshops. And so were 9 earrings, a karat gold ring with diamond, 2 bangles, 5 rings and 1 bracelet. 

Tunghayan ang isa na namang kwentong Dream Love

On Jun 19, 2019, a total of $2,235,500 worth of assorted jewelry were hocked at various pawnshops. Mrs Liang paid $342,124 to the pawnshops to recover her jewelry but some were not recovered.

Diamond-studded necklace redeemed by Liang for over $50k

The last batch taken by Nones was assorted jewelry worth $1,265,000 for which Mrs Liang paid the pawnshops $217,730 to recover.

M. Nones was responsible for pawning between Jun 3 and Nov 25, 2018 assorted stolen jewelry worth $2,110,000 owned by Mrs Liang for which the pawnshops paid her $222,250. Mrs Liang paid the pawnshops $316,514 for their recovery.

For her part, Alagna helped pawn $1,145,000 worth of the loot on five various occasions between May 13, 2018 and June 2, 2019. Mrs Liang spent $204,960 to recover them. 

According to a source close to Mrs Liang, the employer had kept most of the jewelry in a safe inside her bedroom, and was clueless as to how Carmelita managed to learn the combination to open the safe and steal the items.

The source also said the employer had asked investigators in the Philippines to check on Nones’ lifestyle, and received photos showing the helper had built two lavish houses in her hometown, and owned a number of vehicles.

Call us!

CALL US!

PADALA NA!

 

Third member of Tin Shui Wai family found with UK variant

By The SUN 

A microbiologist says a recent arrival must have passed on the UK variant to the 3 patients

A microbiologist has called on the government to re-test people who arrived in Hong Kong from high-risk places in the past month, to see if any of them is carrying the N501Y variant, and has spread it to three members of a family in Tin Shui Wai.

Ho Pak-leung from the University of Hong Kong made the call as a 20-year-old member of the family became the latest to test positive for the Alpha variant of the coronavirus which was first found in the United Kingdom.

Call now!

Her younger sister and mother had both tested positive for the mutated strain earlier, and the source of their infection is unknown. It is the first time the variant was found locally.

Ho said in an interview with RTHK that he believes the family was infected by someone who had just arrived from overseas and whose infection was not detected during the quarantine period.

CONTACT US!

“What can be done now is to contact people who arrived in the past 3 to 4 weeks from places categorized as high risk and have left their quarantine hotels. Authorities should trace their contacts, and conduct both antibody tests – which are currently not being done now- as well as nucleic acid tests,” he said.

The antibody tests would show whether a person had previously been infected with Covid-19. Ho said this test should now be done on each traveler on their arrival at the airport, and shortly before the end of their hotel quarantine.

PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE

A statement from the Centre for Health Protection said the latest patient in the cluster was sent to a quarantine center after her 17-year-old sister tested positive on Jun 4.

On the same day, the patient developed a cough, runny nose and diarrhea and was admitted to hospital the next day. Her test result showed she had the N501Y variant, but did not carry the L452R or E484K mutant genes first found in other countries.

Both sisters and their mother did not get themselves vaccinated against Covid-19.

Nina Mall in Tsuen Wan is among those put under compulsory testing after a visit by the latest patient

A compulsory testing order on 12 places visited by the latest patient has already been issued by the CHP, on top of several other venues where her sister and mother had been.

Meanwhile, six imported cases were again reported today, including four new arrivals from Indonesia, three of them foreign domestic helpers.

The only non-FDH is a 29-year-old man who arrived on Jun 5 aboard Cathay Pacific fight CX 798 and was found to carry the L452R variant of the coronavirus.

Two of the female helpers, aged 35 and 36, flew in on Jun 6 aboard CX 798 and tested positive for Covid-19 on arrival at Hong Kong Airport. Neither had the mutated strain.

CALL US!

The third, who is 22 years old, arrived on May 30 aboard the virus-plagued Garuda Airlines flight GA 876, and tested positive for Covid-19 while in a quarantine center. Her specimen sample is said to be too low to determine if she carries the mutated strain of the virus.

Garuda has been suspended from flying to Hong Kong since Jun 1, after three of its passengers from Indonesia who were all FDHs, were found to carry the variant on arrival at the airport.

A fourth subsequently tested positive for Covid-19, so the latest infected passenger is the fifth from that flight.

Tunghayan ang isa na namang kwentong Dream Love

The fifth imported case is a 25-year-old female returnee from the United Arab Emirates, who arrived on Jun 5 aboard Emirates flight EK 389. The result of her test for the presence of a coronavirus variant is still pending.

Rounding up the six imported cases is a 17-year-old female who flew in from the United States on Jun 3 aboard Korean Air flight Ka 7607. She tested positive for Covid-19 while in hotel quarantine, but negative for the mutant strain.

Hong Kong’s total coronavirus tally is now 11,865 with the addition of the latest cases.

A total of 33 cases have now been reported in the past 15 days, including the three local cases with the Alpha variant whose source is unknown.

Call us!

CALL US!

PADALA NA!

 

Mom & older sister of UK variant carrier also test positive for Covid-19

By The SUN 

Residents of Shing Yu House, where the patients live, will be tested four times

Seven new coronavirus cases in Hong Kong were reported today, Jun 6, including a lone local case, the 53-year-old mother of a teenage girl who was earlier found infected with the coronavirus variant first found in the United Kingdom.

It is the first time that the UK variant, with a scientific name B.1.1.7 and labeled by the World Health Organization as Alpha has been detected in a local case in Hong Kong.

The Centre for Health Protection said in a press statement that the 20-year-old sister of the index patient in the cluster is also a preliminary positive case. All three are residents of Shing Yu House, Block P, Tin Shing Court, in Tin Shui Wai.

Call now!

The housing block was locked down Friday night but all 850 residents tested all had negative test results. But since a variant case is involved, the residents will be tested four more times in the next two weeks as a precaution.

Their next compulsory testing is set for tomorrow, Jun 7.

The sister is one of fewer than five preliminary positive cases reported today. 

PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE

The girls’ family members including her mother, who is a housewife, had been in quarantine since Jun 4 after they were identified as close contacts of the index patient.

The mother was asymptomatic. However, her test results, including a confirmatory screening by the Department of Health’s laboratory, showed she also carried the UK variant.

The CHP said the woman and both her daughters had not received Covid-19 vaccines.

CONTACT US!

As for the older sister, she developed symptoms including cough, runny nose and diarrhea on Jun 4 and was admitted to hospital yesterday. Her respiratory specimen  tested preliminary positive.

The CHP said she is a student who attended online classes at home. Information she has provided showed she visited the following places in Tsuen Wan on May 29: 

Nina Mall 1, 8 Yeung Uk Road; Nina Mall 2, 98 Tai Ho Road; The Mills, 45 Pak Tin Par St; D‧Park shopping centre; NAMCO, Citywalk II; Volcano Kitchen One, G/F, 75 Tai Pa St, and Chan•Taiwan Cuisine, Shop 122, 1/F, Nina Mall 2. 

CALL US!

The patient said that on May 23, she also visited these places: K11 Musea, Victoria Dockside, 18 Salisbury Road; Cats Tea Room, Room 3, 3/F, Hai Phong Mansion, 53-55 Haiphong Road; eslite spectrum Store, 2/F-3/F, Star House, 3 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, and Dragon Centre, 37K Yen Chow St, Sham Shui Po, where she dined at Kakurega Ramen Factory, Room 7083, 7/F, of the mall.

K11 Musea will be put under compulsory testing notice again

As the patient did not use the “LeaveHomeSafe” mobile app, the CHP said it would broadcast messages to visitors of the same venues she visited according to the latest itinerary she had provided.

The places she had stayed in during the incubation period will be included in a compulsory testing notice. People who had been t the above venues at specified periods need to undergo compulsory testing on or before the specified date.  

Tunghayan ang isa na namang kwentong Dream Love

Six of today's cases are imported, and among them is a Filipino seafarer, aged 23, who arrived on Jun 4 from the Philippines via Asiana Flight OZ721 from Seoul. A staff of the Information Services Department said the man is found to be carrying the N501Y variant.

A 36-year-old Indian seaman also arrived on Friday on KLM Flight KL819 via Bangkok and was found carrying the L452R variant of the disease.

Hong Kong has imposed a ban on passenger flights from the Philippines and India from Apr 20 by virtue of their being “extremely high-risk” countries for Covid-19. But  seafarers from these designated places are allowed to take other routes to enter Hong Kong.

Also arriving last Friday were two Indonesian female helpers aged 28 and 33 who flew in from Surabaya. They tested positive for the regular Covid-19, staff at the government information said.

Today’s imported patients also included a woman aged 24 who arrived from France on Jun 2 on Flight KL819 and tested positive on the third day of her quarantine at Nina Hotel Island South in Wong Chuk Hang.

The sixth imported case was a man aged 58 who arrived from Dubai on Emirates flight EK384 on May 27 and stayed at Silka Tsuen Wan in Kwai Chung. He developed symptoms on Jun 4, took his 9^th day test and returned a positive result.

Today’s confirmed cases took Hong Kong’s total caseload to 11,859 so far, the CHP said.

A total of 21 cases have been reported in the past 14 days from May 23, including the 17-year-old girl.

Filipina helper claiming torture by employer seeks police help

By Daisy CL Mandap

 

Eden says her employer used a frying pan to hit her thighs and stomach...

...after slapping her on both cheeks an incredible 15 times

It is Erwiana all over again. But this time, it is a Filipina domestic worker who is claiming to have suffered horrific abuse at the hands of her local employer over a 14-month period.

Eden P., 36, fled the house of her employer on Sunday, May 30, all black and blue, and went to the Shatin office of her employment agency, Get Smart, the only place she knew in Hong Kong.

According to Eden, she was never allowed to leave her employer’s house in Serenade Cove, Tsuen Wan since she arrived in March last year. During that entire time, she was repeatedly scratched, slapped, punched and hit with objects by her female employer, Mrs Mak, a teacher.

Call now!

Photos taken by Eden’s fellow residents at the agency’s boarding house were reminiscent of the ordeal suffered by Indonesian helper Erwiana some seven years ago.

Two ugly contusions on her thighs, and another on her belly, were clearly prominent. Eden told Shatin Police these were caused by a frying pan that her employer had hit her with about five times on May 25.

The other photos showed obvious scratch marks on her back and front upper body, with more recent nicks on her side and one on her back.

PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE

Before hitting her with the fying pan, Eden said Mak had slapped her an incredible 15 times on both sides of her face, all because the employer’s 19-month-old baby boy was crying loudly and did not finish his congee.

Not content with this, Mak reportedly kicked Eden’s lower legs about five more times until the crying helper begged her to stop.

In a phone interview with The SUN later, Eden said her male employer, a physiotherapist, had told her Mak’s volatile behavior was caused by post-partum depression. The helper said the male employer never tried to stop his wife from hitting her.

CONTACT US!

 

Eden also said that was not the first time Mak had hurt her. She claimed her employer often scratched and pinched her, which was why in the photos shared by her board mates, Eden’s back was full of deep scratch marks or contusions, some of them still raw, while the others were already healed or healing.

Eden's back is full of deep scratch wounds, both old and new

Even her breasts were not spared, as there were quite a few scratch marks there as well.

In the afternoon of May 29, Mak allegedly blew up again because her baby had another crying fit and would not finish his pasta. The employer went to the kitchen and vented her ire at the helper again, slapping her face repeatedly with both hands.

CALL US!

Mak then allegedly punched the helper on the chest and back about five times, then scratched both sides of her face and her back, before going back to the living room.

Eden said when she checked her face, she saw both sides of her face were bleeding and her chest and back were in pain.

Her whole body bears signs of being pinched, pricked and scratched

The next day, Eden said she was left alone at home, and she seized the chance to escape.

Accompanied by a fellow agency client, Eden went to Shatin Police to make a statement, and officers accompanied her to a hospital for a medical check-up. She managed to get back to the agency shelter early the next day.

A few hours later, she reported to the Mission for Migrant Workers office in Central to seek help. Edwina Antonio, case officer and executive director of Bethune House Migrant Women’s Refuge, offered to take her in so she could be helped with her case and get counseling service.

Tunghayan ang isa na namang kwentong Dream Love

Eden agreed, but said her agency didn’t want her to move, saying the boarding house was what was listed as her address in the police file.

The next day, Tuesday, Eden was supposed to ask Get Maid to again allow her to move to Bethune House, but suddenly stopped communicating with Antonio and others who had offered to help her.

Where is Eden?

Failing to get the helper to respond to their call or text messages, the Mission, through Antonio and general manager Cynthia Tellez, got alarmed and sought help from the Philippine Overseas Labor Office.

They wanted to find out where Eden was, and what action had been done to ensure the worker’s safety.

They also asked what Polo had intended to do with the agency for not reporting the case immediately to them, considering it involved a complaint for serious physical abuse and detention of an overseas Filipino worker.

Polo’s officer-in-charge Antonio Villafuerte responded with a text to The SUN, saying the agency had already submitted a report to them. “The OFW is secured. Police investigation is going on.”

He no longer responded when asked where Eden was, and why she stopped talking to Antonio and other people who had initially helped her with her case.

The Mission and The SUN pressed on for answers, saying the worker’s safety is better assured if she was in the Consulate’s shelter or Bethune House, and not in the agency’s boarding house.

Consul General Raly Tejada, who had been apprised of the case earlier, eventually intervened, and directed Polo to respond to the queries and convene a meeting attended by ATN, the Mission and The SUN.

During the hastily arranged meeting Saturday, it emerged Eden was in the agency’s care until Wednesday, and was moved to the Consulate’s shelter only on Thursday. The agency also reported the case to Polo only after it was asked about it.

More facts emerged during meeting at POLO.

In its report, the agency also claimed its staff had accompanied Eden to the police station, an assertion which the worker herself denied.

A call to Eden also revealed the agency had told her to stop talking to anyone apart from officers at Polo, ostensibly because the police had forbidden it. She was also told she would be called to discuss her labor claims against her employer.

Tellez reacted strongly to the latter, saying settling Eden’s claims should not simply involve what is in the contract, but also compensation for the wrong that was done to her, as what the Mission had done in the case of Erwiana.

The meeting ended with a tentative agreement for Tellez and her group to see Eden at the Consulate on Sunday, but not at the shelter run by OWWA.

ATN, through Consul Bob Quintin and officer Arnel de Luna, also promised to liaise with police on whether Eden’s employer has already been arrested and what further actions will be taken in her case.

Amid the uneasy truce, the Mission officers are determined to get more time to confer with Eden to check on her well-being and to advise her on what lay ahead, both in terms of her police case and the civil case for compensation that might have to be filed on her behalf.

“She should understand what she will have to go through,” Tellez said

PADALA NA!

Call us!