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CEBU CITY, Philippines — An Indian national is now facing criminal complaints over illegal recruitment and estafa.
The National Bureau of Investigation in Central Visayas (NBI-7) filed cases against a certain Harjot Singh, alias James Jeiz, for allegedly committing estafa and posing as a recruiter.
In a press statement, the NBI-7 said Harjot allegedly duped at least 26 Cebuanos for jobs overseas in exchange for fees, which could go up to P20,000 per individual.
Harjot, whose address is in Sitio Ciwac, Brgy. Bulacao, Cebu City, had reportedly started recruiting in June 2021.
According to reports filed by some of his victims, he would invite them to discuss what was apparently a job opportunity abroad.
His modus operandi involved dangling job openings as a cashier in a city in Australia for five years. He even promised his victims that they would earn as much as P130,000.
He would also present what seemed to be a contract to make it look like the job offer was legitimate, and that the applicants would need to wait for word from the Australian Embassy in Manila.
In exchange, Harjot would apparently ask for their medical records and a payment for his services, NBI-7 said.
However, the process took months that prompted some of the victims to ask for a refund from Harjot.
“However, months passed and the applicants were waiting in vain. Until on March 2022 most of those recruited decided to withdraw their application and demanded for a full refund of their placement fee. NO DEPLOYMENT ever happened and neither did HARJOT return their placement fee,” explained NBI-7.
When the suspect reportedly failed to heed to their requests, the victims decided to report the incident to the authorities.
NBI-7, upon verification from the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA), has also discovered that Singh is not a licensed recruiter for jobs overseas.
On top of cases on illegal recruitment and estafa, Harjot is also facing complaints for violating the Migrant Workers and Oversease Filipino Act of 1995.
The NBI-7 said that they were waiting for a warrant of arrest to be issued by the court before they would move on the Indian national.
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