BI deports Japanese man for fraud

MANILA, Philippines - A 45-year-old Japanese man was recently deported to stand trial for fraud, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said yesterday.

In a statement, BI Commissioner Ricardo David Jr. said Ryuchi Ohira was put on a Japanese Airlines flight to Narita, Tokyo last Feb. 15.

BI acting intelligence chief Maria Antonette Mangrobang said Ohira is wanted to stand trial before a district court in Kofu, where he was charged with fraud and falsification of sealed private document. Ohira allegedly withdrew 500,000 yen from another person’s postal savings account by falsifying the depositor’s signature on the withdrawal slip.

She said the Kofu district court issued a warrant for his arrest in September last year, and Ohira fled to the Philippines on Oct. 29, 2011. Ohira became an undocumented alien when his passport expired on Jan. 4.

The BI’s fugitive search unit, acting upon a request by the Japanese embassy, found and arrested Ohira on Nov. 21, 2011 in Baclaran, Parañaque City. The fugitive was also included in the BI’s blacklist, preventing him from returning to the Philippines.