Thousands of dollars down the drain: Nepali student in Sydney tricked for visa

A Nepali student in Sydney says he paid thousands of dollars to a person reporting to be an agent who could get him a visa, only to realise the agent was a convicted "conman" Eddie Kang. Kang was sentenced in 2017 for 12 months but is now on conditional bail and the Nepali student says he has given up on getting his money back.

Source: abc network

Sydney businessman Eddie Kang was sentenced to 12 months prison in 2017 after being found guilty of tricking 11 international students. Kang is alleged to have taken thousands of dollars from the students after promising them with 457 visas. 

Kang appealed against his sentence and was released on conditional bail, which restricted him from applying for any visa applications on behalf of a company where he was the sole director. 

But an ABC report says Kang is still continuing his illegal activities and is reported to have taken money from at least 10 students after being convicted of fraud by a Sydney court. 

Sunil Thapaliya, a Nepali student in Sydney is one of Kang’s alleged victims. 

He says while trying to get a visa for him and his wife he found Eddie Kang’s details after a quick search on the internet. He seemed like a genuine person and I decided to contact him says Thapaliya. 

“In 2017 I went to his office called “Goldman Pintex” in North Sydney – we signed the contract and he asked me to pay the first instalment of $5000 but I transferred $4000 to his account”, he told SBS Nepali.

Sunil Thapaliya shared a screen shot of a receipt which he says shows the money he paid to Eddie Kang. Source: Sunil Thapaliya

But after Thapaliya signed a contract with Eddie Kang and went few times to his office, he met few other people who alleged that they were being tricked by him.

"I then searched the net and saw news about his conviction", says Thapaliya.

 

The New South Wales department of Fair Trading had also issued a warning at the end of 2017 urging the members of the community "not to deal with Goldman Pintex Management".  

He then decides to ask Eddie Kang for the refund of his money. But instead of getting his money back, he says he got rude text messages, accusing Thapaliya of trying to sabotage his company.

Screen shot from Sunil Thapaliya's phone about his alleged correspondence with Eddie Kang. Source: Supplied

Thapaliya said he tried to get help from the NSW Fair trading and they couldn’t help either. 

SBS Nepali contacted the Department of Fair trading who suggested Thapaliya contact the Administrative tribunal or a lawyer. 

He says he has now lost hope of recovering his money and is urging other Nepalis to only go to those immigration agents who they know. 

Eddie Kang is reported to be involved in more than 20 different companies and he has been reportedly seeing his clients with various aliases.

Eddie Kang's linkedin profile Source: linkedin

Some of the companies which Eddie Kang is involved with include Singapore Oil, Skylane worldwide, Mill and Pen and borderless globe. Eddie Kang’s LinkedIn profile says he is the CEO at Singapore Oil pty ltd. 

In 2014, ABC had published a report on Eddie Kang’s victims.