Remember Xian Gaza? Yep, the guy who asked Filipino actress Erich Gonzales out on a date using a billboard. Yep, the one who people accused of being a scammer. Yep, that guy who coined the word “nyeaamm.”
Well, earlier today, he surrendered to the police, about 9 months after he first went viral.
According to an ABS-CBN News report from Tuesday, Gaza was presented with arrest warrants by two branches of the Malabon Metropolitan Trial Court for violating the Anti-Bouncing Checks Law.
Apparently, Gaza has not been paying two people who invested money in his coffee shop business.
READ: ‘Coffee date’ guy answers scammer, stalker claims
One of them is Jaime Asuncion, who invested PHP1 million (about US$19,228). Asuncion told ABS-CBN News that he decided to just take back his money and let Gaza run the business after noticing that the latter was “greedy.”
Gaza agreed to pay Asuncion back and he did, at first. He eventually stopped, which is why Asuncion filed a complaint.
After Asuncion, Gaza approached Melinda Cruz, a family friend, and asked her to finance the coffee shop. She ended up lending him PHP2 million (US$38,458). Gaza started out paying her a monthly interest payment of PHP20,000 (US$384), but again, he eventually stopped paying her.
The two victims reached out to radio station DZMM earlier this week when they realized that Gaza was nowhere to be found after the arrest warrants were presented.
Saying he was sick of hiding and hoping to turn over a new leaf, Gaza eventually surrendered to the Malabon police this morning. An event he, of course, just had to share on social media first.
On Tuesday, he also posted a video of himself singing the song My Way in front of famous landmarks around the world with the caption: “Kanta muna bago makulong (Sing first before going to jail).”
When ABS-CBN News spoke with Gaza, he confirmed that he did get the warrants for not showing up to court hearings and that he has not been paying his debt.
He also said that his parents had already paid Cruz with land they own in Cavite that he said was worth more than PHP2 million (US$38,458). However, Cruz alleges that it’s actually only worth PHP700,000 (US$13,451.87).
