Bureau of Immigration nabs 2 Americans for fraud

MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Immigration (BI) recently arrested two American nationals wanted by federal authorities in the United States for fraud and other criminal offenses.

BI Commissioner Marcelino Libanan said in a statement that Jeffrey Tye Brown, 49, was arrested in Dumaguete on Dec. 16 and Paul Daniel Hogg, 67, in Cagayan de Oro on Dec. 17.

The BI said the two fugitives were arrested at the request of the US embassy in Manila and will be deported. The US state department has revoked their passports, making them undocumented aliens.

The BI-Interpol unit, headed by Floro Balato Jr., said that Brown has been on the BI’s wanted list since May 2008 when the US embassy sought the bureau’s help in locating and deporting him.

Brown is reportedly wanted by authorities in Nevada where a warrant for his arrest was issued by a US district court in connection with several felony violations he committed.

According to an article in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Brown, who ran the DB Financial Group, was initially charged with two counts of theft, two counts of deceptive trade practices and one count of forgery after he charged clients foreclosure prevention fees but failed to provide services.

He and several others are accused of urging people to take out home purchase loans. The victim is told someone else will make payments on the loan and then split profits with them once the home is sold later. The suspects then keep the loan.

Hogg, on the other hand, will stand trial before a US district court in southeastern Missouri that had issued a warrant for his arrest.

He was charged before the court with making “false statement of a material fact in determining rights to payment and failure to disclose event to social security.”

The two fugitives are currently detained at the BI detention center in Bicutan pending the issuance of a summary deportation order against them by the BI board of commissioners.   – Evelyn Macairan