Large-scale swindler collared

The National Bureau of Investigation has arrested recently a female large-scale swindler who has victimized more than a dozen applicants looking for jobs in the United States and had paid more than P6 million as fees.

NBI head agent Sixto Comia, chief of Intelligence Special Operations Division (ISOD), identified the suspect as Engineer Rolynda Sosa, with residential and office address at 2316 Guijo Street, United Hills Village, Paranaque City.

The suspect was arrested around 9 p.m. on April 30 in her residence. The NBI agents were armed with four warrants of arrest issued against Sosa due to previous complaints in four other cases pending before different courts.

The latest 14 victims of Sosa who filed a complaint before the NBI were Annaliza and Annalyn Honorica, Emerson Zoleta, Jhores Jasa, Mark Anthony Perlas, Ronalyn Seòorin, Edineeh Bentoy, Frederick Yamio, Leah Tan, Milagros Dipasupil, Ronalyn Ramirez, McNiel Yamio, Maribel Dondon and Bryan Mercado.

In their latest investigation of the suspect, the NBI showed a copy of the complaint filed by the 14 victims. Victims said Sosa, together with a certain Alfred Briones, human resources manager of Vitamins and Cebu Artists, the agency they applied in, had accepted their application and fees for jobs in Florida, USA.

Briones was not arrested, charged nor investigated, the NBI said. The case is still pending in its investigation.

The victims said they initially paid Sosa P60,000 per applicant as processing fee. Sosa then asked for an additional P5,000 for the visa form. Then a medical fee of P2,500 was also paid by each victim.

 Each victim then paid another P5,000. And then, an additional P50,000 each after a few days for the plane tickets.

The victims were also told to pay an additional P190,000 each.

The victims were applying for jobs as housekeeping attendants in Florida.

No medical examination and training were conducted. Some of the applicants were even denied their visas by the US Embassy.

During their investigation, the NBI found out that Sosa had pending warrants of arrest in different courts. The NBI said previous complainants in a different case had told investigators that Sosa asked for an amount of P200,000 each as placement fees.

Another one was asked to finance Sosa’s job recruitment company, for an investment fee of P370,000. However, the victim never collected from the business Sosa had promised the former.

Sosa’s other cases are a bouncing check case (BP 22) filed in 1998 before Branch 64 of the Makati Metropolitan Trial Court; a swindling/estafa case filed in 2005 before Branch 93 of the San Pedro, Laguna RTC; a large scale illegal recruitment case filed in 2006 before Branch 31 also in the San Pedro, Laguna RTC; and another case of estafa filed in 2007 before Branch 4 of the Batangas RTC.

The warrants issued came from these courts where the pending cases were discovered, the NBI said. Armed with these warrants, the NBI conducted the arrest. No entrapment was made.