German wanted Israeli man arrests in Philippines

An Israeli man facing a string of fraud charges in Germany has been arrested in the Philippines after being on the run for more than a year. The Bureau of Immigration said on Tuesday, that the 43-year-old suspect was apprehended on Oct. 22, in the Manila suburban city of Pasay. Immigration Commissioner, Jaime Morente, said he was arrested following a two-week manhunt after German authorities sent information about the charges against him.

He added that he is in the custody, proceed with the deportation proceedings so he may be deported and blacklisted from the country for being an undesirable alien. According to German authorities, the Israeli man allegedly defrauded about 200 victims in an investment scam worth more than 6.4 million euros between 2016 and 2019.

He was part of a syndicate that operated an online trading platform and persuaded victims through emails and telephone calls to invest large sums of money with a promise of high profits. The immigration bureau said two arrest warrants were issued by German courts in Bavaria against the suspect in February 2020. The suspect arrived in Manila as a tourist in January 2020, before the country went into lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, he was not an overstaying foreigner with an expired tourist visa.