By Vir B. Lumicao
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| Only Biscocho was in court today to face 20 criminal charges |
| Only Biscocho was in court today |
Another complainant against two alleged illegal recruiters,
one of them a Filipina domestic helper, has stepped forward, prompting
prosecution to ask for an adjournment of the case during a hearing at District
Court today, Sept 3.
Only defendant Marijane Biscocho, 42, was in court today, as
her employer, Lennis Ebrahim, 56, was said to be sick, according to her lawyer.
Each faces a charge of money laundering and 19 counts of
applying a false trade description when they offered allegedly non-existent
jobs in Hong Kong and Macau to several
Filipino jobseekers who paid between $3,000 to $10,000.
Judge K.W. Kwok adjourned the case until Oct 13 and ordered
Biscocho sent back to custody.
He also ordered Ebrahim to go to the District Court within
seven days to complete her bail application. At the same time he told Ebrahim’s
lawyer sternly to make sure his client appears in the next hearing.
He said Ebrahim can either apply to have her bail extended,
or make a new bail application within the next seven days.
The two defendants were supposed to enter their plea today,
but this was again postponed because of Ebrahim’s absence, and the filing of a
new complaint against them.
The prosecution told Judge Kwok that because of the new
complaint by an alleged victim, investigators needed more time to consolidate
the cases.
On the money laundering charge, Biscocho and Ebrahim are
accused of depositing $127,000 in a Hang Seng Bank account and $510,500 in an
HSBC account between 2018 and 2019, the sums being proceeds from their illegal
acts.
Separately, Biscocho is charged with breaching her condition
of stay by working for Ebrahim’s WHT Consulting Co, a recruitment firm in Kwun
Tong, between Oct 1, 2018 and Sept 17 last year while on domestic helper visa.
A second Filipina helper, Ninfa Lumatac, was accused by the complainants
as one of those who lured them to pay for jobs as gardeners, drivers and
printers in Hong Kong and Macau that turned
out to be non-existent.
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The prosecution later said Lumatac had escaped to Macau,
then to the Philippines
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