The Office of the Attorney General is reviewing a fraud case involving a former Manager of Best Placement Agency (BPA). While serving as a manager of the agency, he allegedly cheated over 12 students of more than Nu 2 M.
The students had applied to go to Malaysia on ‘learn and earn programme’ but were allegedly duped by him.
According to the OAG, the former manager allegedly misused money meant for tuition fees and air tickets. The former manager is accused of fraudulently making agreements with the students, transacted money worth over Nu 2 M and misused the company’s name, seal and logo. The incident took place in December last year. Now the students are asking for refunds.
“We trusted the agency and did all the necessary things we were told to. Now when we claim our refund, the agency is blaming their employee. We invested our money in the agency, not the person who is now blamed. our loans should be either cleared by the person or the agency should be held responsible,” said Kinley Dorji, a victim of the fraud.
The students, BBS spoke to, are struggling with the loan repayment and confused who should be held responsible to clear the loans.
“We can’t even work when we are burdened by the loan. We have to visit relevant people time and again. We have to ask for money from our parents for transportation, food and other expenses. Some of our colleagues were terminated from their temporary jobs not being able to be punctual. We don’t understand whether our loans will be cleared by BPA or Thinley Phuntsho,” Ugyen Choden, another student who applied to BPA, said.
Some even hinted at coalition;
“Thinley Phuntsho was the manager of BPA when I applied for Malaysia. I waited for six months and he stated that my visa, loans and everything were ready. I did the shopping and was fully prepared to go. After that when I came to Thimphu from Gelegphu, he told me that my visa was not fully ready and I was asked to wait for another 3 months. He procrastinated many times after that. I waited for a very long time. Eventually, I came to know that he was suspended from the office. I heard that he confessed over duping 5 students. Since Thinley was an employee of BPA, we thought that BPA was responsible for our loans, student visas and all. At last madam MD was blaming Thinley for fraud. We don’t believe that all the money is taken by him. Someone from the office or other branches are involved. I just want my loan to be cleared,” added Yeshi Dema, also a student.
The agency gets offer letters for the students. It is then sent to the Labour Ministry for support letter to get loans from the bank of Bhutan. the agent also said that the accused had agreed to refund last year. The agent tried to get back the money from him but failed.
“We didn’t know about his doings at first. We came to know about it through one of the parents when he came to ask about the delay in the visa processing. We questioned Thinley and he confessed duping 5 students. Later on, many students again came with the same complaint. We immediately took the matter to the police for investigation. After proper investigation, the case has been forwarded to the Office of the Attorney General,” said Sangay Zangpo, Manager of BPA.
BBS could not contact the former manager for comments.
