Ship captain duped, loses P.25 M to Nigerian

Police and immigration officials have issued an alarm against a Nigerian national who reportedly duped an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) of P250,000 in an easy-money making scheme.

In a complaint filed before the Western Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, Jaime Inocencio, 45, a captain of a foreign-based vessel, identified the suspect as one Freeman Kingsley.

According to the victim, he met a Nigerian named Garuba when his ship made its port call in La Goulette, Tunisia last month.

The Nigerian offered him a business partnership, naming his brother Kingsley as his contact in the Philippines.

Upon arrival in the country, the victim said he got a call from Kingsley with instructions to meet him at a hotel in Pasay City. During their meeting, the Nigerian asked for $5,000 (roughly P250,000) as his share in the business venture. The suspect also told him that his own cash is contained in a briefcase which they claimed at the hotel’s diplomatic courier.

The duo then proceeded to the suspect’s room at Amazonia Hotel along M.H. del Pilar street in Ermita, Manila.

Once inside the room, the suspect opened the briefcase which contained bundles of blackened paper bills covered with white powder and wads of cotton. The suspect said the blackened paper bills are genuine dollar bills which underwent a camouflage process to hide its value worth millions. The suspect even showed what looked like a genuine instruction manual from the US Embassy on how to remove the black powder from the bills.

The suspect got one of the blackened paper bills and poured a special liquid on it, revealing a genuine $100 bill. The victim said he was able to exchange the bill into pesos at a nearby money exchange shop.

The suspect then told the victim that he needed to secure more of the special liquid since what he carried was not enough to erase all the black powder from all the bills. He then left the room.

The victim said the suspect never returned. He tried to examine the blackened bills inside the brief case and found out that they were only pieces of cut-out cartons.

Western-CIDG chief Superintendent Nelson Yabut said the US Embassy confirmed the instruction manual was fake and denied having issued any such manual.

Yabut also requested the immigration bureau to issue a hold departure order against the suspect.

He warned the public, especially OFWs, not to be deceived by any money-making scheme by foreigners.