The lucrative scheme of the passport scandal revealed

Edmund Castro

We also revisit the lucrative scheme which allegedly netted two thousand dollars per visa. According to our source, they did this between October 2012 and April 2013 – a total of two hundred plus visas for Chinese nationals at two thousand dollars a head – which means that in those six months a four hundred thousand dollars allegedly went to the minister of state – and that is just for the work he did with our source.

Voice of: Visa Facilitator

“He would bring the application forms, the Chinese passports and the money, but the money he would bring is only Minister Castro’s money. My money and the government’s money would have to wait until the process is finished. Okay, so when I go to Minister Castro’s office, before he has his secretary do these letters, I have to pay him first. He would say well let me see what you have for me…how much money. One time when I took twelve thousand dollars for six passports he said ah come on, you know you’re making more than this…I think I should be paid three thousand for one but then I told him I can’t do that. The process would only take two days. If I go to see Minister Castro today, he would have his secretary prepare that letter. She would deliver it to him in front of me. He would then sign on it and take the application form and other paperwork that I take to him and put them in an envelope and deliver it to his secretary who then sends the driver or the messenger to the Immigration office with these applications. That is like maybe today. Tomorrow I would get a call from his secretary saying that the application forms have been approved so I can go into Immigration. I already had the passports so I knew exactly the persons’ name that I was going to pick up the little piece of paper that they give you with the immigration stamp on it. And then they would tell me this is the paper, go to the window and pay. But at that time I wouldn’t have the government money so I would have to come outside, call my contact who gave me the money to pay Minister Castro. And he would then come and bring the cost for the government – like if its six passports I have had approved, the applications, he would bring that twelve thousand dollars that I would pay to the cashier to the government. Then I would get the receipt and leave the passports. Then they would tell me to come back in half an hour or an hour, because the visa would already have been implanted in the passports.”