Extradition Quest

May 26, 2007 (LBO) – The Philippine government has asked for arrested operators of the Questnet referral schemes in which tens of thousands of poor Asians and Africans have lost money, to be formally extradited, reports said. Earlier in May, the public face of the Quest International (QI) group, Vijayeswaran Vijayaratnam, director Joseph Luis Tomacruz Bismark, and two other senior executives, Donna Marie Glen Imson and Tagumpay Pablo Perez Kintanar were arrested in Indonesia.

Interpol had issued a red notice on the operators, on a warrant issued in a fraud case in the Philippines in 2006, but they were only apprehended earlier this month.

Extradition Request

Jakarta Metropolitan police spokesman Ketut Untung Yoga told the Malaysian newspaper New Straits Times (NST), that the extradition request was now being processed in an Indonesian court.

Vijayeswaran is a Malaysian national. The other three are Filipinos.

NST also quoted Philippines National Bureau of Investigation’s criminal intelligence division chief Ricardo Diaz as saying the only thing they could do now was wait.

"We did what was accorded in the extradition treaty and we are free to use diplomatic channels," he told NST.