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이
기사는 2001년 12월 19일자 인콰이어러지에서 전제 한 것입니다.
Fake gold
bar fetches P1.15M
CHRISTMAS is near, but even
gold could have a false glitter.
The Manila police nabbed
one of two brothers who duped a Korean national into giving them
1.15 million pesos in exchange for a fake gold bar in Manila.
Jung Pil Yoon, 59, currently
billeted at La Coronas Hotel, at 1166 M.H. Del Pilar corner Arquiza
St. Ermita, Manila, accused brothers James, 41, and Jessie
Barcelona, both of M.H. del Pilar Compound, Barangay dela Paz,
Antipolo City, of duping him, said detective Vicente Noriega, of the
Western Police District General Assignment Section.
Yoon
said he gave the brothers 23,000 dollars in exchange for a gold bar
but the two siblings were not able to produce a trace of the fabled
gold.
He asked for help from the police, who found James
behind bars at the WPD Theft and Robbery section. He had been
arrested for swindling, Noriega said.
Yoon said the victim
met the two brothers at the Mandarin Hotel in September. They
allegedly promised him a 24 karat gold bar, weighing 6.2 kilograms.
The suspects sweet-talked Yoon into agreeing to the deal.
The victim said he gave the two brothers 23,000 dollars on Oct. 10
at the La Corona Hotel in Ermita.
Yoon presented to the
police a receipt for the 23,000 dollars, which was signed by Jessie.
"Actually, it was James who received the money. But they
told me not to worry because they said they were not going to fool
me," Yoon said.
He said the two men told him that he would
have the gold by Dec. 15 because they were going to get the bar from
Hong Kong. The 23,000 dollars was allegedly for "mobilization travel
expenses."
But Dec. 15 came and went but the fabled gold did
not materialize. The suspects then claimed that the money Yoon gave
was not enough, Noriega said.
"Starting that day (Dec. 15),
I began telling them to return the money until James promised to
return it on Monday," Yoon said.
But when Yoon and his
girlfriend Corazon Raganit went to the brothers' office at Room 303
San Carlos Mansion, Ermita, Manila, the two men were nowhere to be
found.
They then went to the police and discovered that
James had been arrested for swindling after he allegedly got
involved in a "Budol-budol" scheme.
Detective Ed Moran
showed the Inquirer a photo of Jessie, who is still at large and is
now the subject of a police manhunt.
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