From several expat groups:

PSA: KEEP AN EYE OUT: PROFESSIONAL THIEVES/EXTORTIONIST LIKELY OPERATING IN CAMBODIA. Possibly currently employed by Smart mobile phone. They should be considered dangerous as they have threatened people’s lives. Will provide additional evidence to anyone who asks by PM. They travel in different countries looking for "work", and steal from anyone, including supposedly close friends and people with almost nothing to spare.

I am the owner of a bar/restaurant in Vientiane, Laos. The man ( Chafiq Balla, Moroccan citizen, wife calls herself Sharon and is Singaporean) worked for us for about six months as our restaurant manager and gained our trust as well as that of everyone here. He is very charismatic and made lots of friends. They left Laos in early July 2018 and swindled me out of $2,700USD. I sent him this money over Western Union when he was in Nepal supposedly in order to help him show the embassy of Laos the cash so he could obtain a visa.

Since that time, I have received reports that:

In Sri Lanka in February 2019 he stole an expats cat and tried to extort usd$3000 to get it back, in addition to stealing electronics and computers. You can read about it here:
https://web.facebook.com/alexawilkinson ... rdc=1&_rdr

In Korea August 2018, his wife Sharon stole 5 mobile phones and the equivalent of usd$500 in cash from undocumented workers after gaining their trust and being allowed to stay in their dormitory because they had nowhere else to stay and supposedly needed help. I found out about this through a Facebook post on an expat group too.

He has tried similar scams with every single person he was close to here in Vientiane, including war refugees and people who had very little money to spare, telling him that he was in trouble and needed their help.

I attempted to contact Western Union as well as Interpol but apparently there is nothing really they can do. If anyone wants to share information or has any ideas or knows their whereabouts, please send me a PM.

I have a scan of his passport and can provide this to the authorities.



This album tells the story of a scumbag called Chafik Balla (aka Shafik Vartolo) - a thief and an extortionist, who stole our cat, Edgar, and asked us for a lot of money if we wanted him returned... and then, even when we paid, he didn’t return Edgar

While we now believe that it is very unlikely we will get Edgar back - we want to make sure that as many people as possible hear our story, and hopefully make Chafik’s life as difficult as possible.

The police are aware of what has happened - and are working on the case. We have also contacted the Sri Lankan Vets Association and as many vets and animal rescue shelters as we can, in case Edgar finds his way to one of them.

Please share this album as widely as you can.

For Edgar. x

i doubt edgar survived the day he was taken

Ch. Balla is most apparently a royal asshole. I hope he and his gf get caught.

Was working as a manager at Corner Bar, St 136 a couple of months back. Not sure if he is still there.

What an evil POS. Hope he and his fat mess of a GF both get whats coming to them.

I'd contact the Singaporean police. They take a strong stand against Singaporeans commiting crimes anywhere in the world. And there's a lot that they can do to make Sharon's life hell. Kidnapping carries the death sentence in Sg, not sure about Catnapping though. But I'm sure extortion is extortion.