NBI arrests Korean for qualified theft, estafa

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI)7 arrested a South Korean hotelier last Friday for qualified theft and syndicated estafa for allegedly pocketing millions from complainants.

Park Jung Kwan, 46, who has been living in Cebu City for eight years, was arrested inside his hotel room in Mabolo, Cebu City by virtue of a warrant of arrest issued by Judge Maria Lynna Adviento of Regional Trial Court, Branch 58.

No bail was recommended for the temporary liberty of the accused.

Kwan, in his defense, said he is confident that the charges he is facing will result to his advantage.

NBI-7 Regional Director Patricio Bernales Jr. said the case has been docketed in their office for a while, and had just been recently addressed due to pressing needs for resolution of one of the complainants.

“Actually, dugay na kay ni. It has been here in the office, because the warrant actually has been issued last 2014,” Bernales said.

Arnel Apura, chief investigator of NBI-7, said Kwan is the fifth person to be arrested for qualified theft.

The NBI is also after Kwan's brother, Park Jung Ho, who is still at large.

Korean Jungkwan Park and Seung Won Yang owned 53,000 shares each or 47 percent of the Mactan Isla Resort and Casino operating in Lapu-Lapu City in 2009.

In 2014, the two were reportedly “unilaterally removed” as stockholders of the corporations owning the resort and their shares of stocks were “transferred to another person without their consent.”

Aside from that, cases were filed against them in different courts, thereby depriving the two of their right to become stockholders in the corporations.

Yang was jailed on January 20, 2015 because of the cases. A year and a half later, Yang was found dead with a noose around his neck, allegedly a victim of suicide.

Apura said that the capital invested for the Mactan Isla Resort and Casino, under the supervision of its new directors, reached almost $13 million, wherein Kwan and five other cohorts allegedly pocketed almost P250 million.

The Mactan Isla Resort and Casino became controversial also for its alleged connection with the Korean mafia, after President Rodrigo Duterte himself, revealed that the group is operating in Cebu.

However, Apura brushed it off and referred the case only as a corporate problem.