Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission Executive Director Reginald Villasanta said they coordinated with the Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group for the arrest of Konstantin Simeonov Kavrakov. Villasanta said that they nabbed the suspect at the PS Bank branch at the corner of Scout Reyes Street in Barangay Paligsahan, Q.C. He was trying to withdraw money using counterfeit ATM cards around 9 p.ml. Following arrest, they recovered nine pPS Bank Quezon Avenue ATM branch receipts and P76,570 in different denominations that the suspect withdrew from the bank’s ATM. In addition, they also recovered assorted credit cards including a Citi Visa, Standard Chartered MasterCard, Citibank MasterCard, Citi MasterCard, Citibank Visa, Eastwest Bank Vice and a blank Gold card. The operation was jointly launched by PAOCC and PNP CIDG elements following a tip from their foreign counterparts. According to Interpol, Kavrakov, famously called by international authorities as the “king of the hackers”, is engaged in ATM and credit card fraud and cloning. He is currently held back at the office of the CIDG’s Anti-Fraud and Commercial Crime Unit and is undergoing charges for violation of the Access Device Regulations Act. Kavrakov’s arrest followed only after Gates reportedly visited the International Rice Research Institute in Los Baños, Laguna on Wednesday. Bureau of Immigration records show that a certain William Henry Gates has been in the country since April 4. — Andrei Medina/JDS, GMA News
