NBI nabs marriage annulment scammer

National Bureau of Investigation-National Capital Region agents arrested an alleged scammer who offered marriage annulments but used bogus documents to dupe victims.

"Kakilala raw [ng suspek] ang mga judges. Makakakuha siya ng decision ng annulment kapalit ng halagang P500,000," explained NBI-NCR Regional Director Rommel Vallejo in John Consulta's Tuesday 24 Oras report.

(The suspect would claim to know the judges and obtain an annulment decision for P500,000.)

But it would later turn out that annulment documents were fakes.

"Walang Branch 72 sa Iba, Zambales. Wala ring regional trial court na ganun ang pangalan at ang pinakamatindi dito, walang civil case na finile sa Zambales for annulment of marriage," added Vallejo.

(There is no Regional Trial Court Branch 72 in Iba, Zambales. What's worse, no actual marriage annulment civil case would be filed in Zambales.)

The NBI believed that the suspect was allegedly pretending to be filing cases in distant courts as it would be too much trouble for victims to verify the filing and find out that the whole thing was a scam.

The suspect, who faces falsification of public documents and estafa charges, refused to comment on the NBI's allegations.

"Magsasagawa tayo ng follow up investigation kung sino pa ang mga kasabwat at kung saan ginagawa ang mga pekeng dokumento na ito," said Vallejo.

(There will be a follow-up investigation to find out if there are accomplices involved and to discover where these fake documents are made.) — DVM, GMA Integrated News