The Bureau of Immigration (BI) said its officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) arrested a Cypriot national wanted by authorities in Greece for involvement in a string of financial fraud cases.
Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco identified the alien fugitive as Renos Neofytou, 59, who was intercepted the NAIA Terminal 3 on Sunday as he was about to leave aboard an Air Asia flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Tansingco said Neofytou was barred from leaving after his name registered a positive hit in the Interpol database of wanted aliens when the immigration officer scanned his passport on his computer.
“It appears that he is a convicted felon who is wanted to serve a prison sentence handed to him by a court in Greece,” the BI chief said.
Tangsingco added that the Cypriot will be deported after the BI board of commissioners issues the order for his summary deportation.
“He will then be placed in our immigration blacklist of undesirable aliens and banned from reentering the country,” he added.
According to the Inrterpol’s national central bureau (NCB) in Manila, Neofytou is subject of a red notice issued by NCB Greece in 2017 following his conviction on nine counts of violating the country’s cheques law, persistent non-payment of debts to the State and issuing and accepting fictional tax documents.
It was learned that the Cypriot received various sentences ranging from four months to five years in each of the cases filed against him.
Also, he was found liable to serve a one-year prison sentence for fleeing Greece to evade evading criminal prosecution.
Neofytou is now detained at the BI warden facility in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City pending deportation proceedings. (JERRY S. TAN)
