JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Authorities on Indonesia’s tourist island of Bali arrested a Filipino fugitive accused of helping scam over $67 million out of clients in the Philippines, officials said Tuesday.
Hector Aldwin Pantollana, 35, widely known in the Philippines as a casino junket operator, was arrested on Nov. 9 when an automatic gate at immigration in I Gusti Ngurah Rai international airport in Bali identified him as a wanted person using biometric data, said Saffar M. Godam, the acting Director General of immigration at Indonesia’s Immigration and Correctional Ministry.
He said Pantollana first arrived in Bali on Oct. 10, and on Oct. 31 Interpol released a so-called Red Notice for him, a request to law enforcement agencies worldwide to detain or arrest a suspect wanted by a specific country.
Indonesian authorities brought the suspect to Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, for further investigation and will deport Pantollana to the Philippines on Wednesday, Godam said.
Indonesia's National Central Bureau Interpol chief Untung Widyatmoko said Pantollana was named as a suspect by the Philippines’ national police after he allegedly collected more than 4 billion Philippine pesos ($67.7 million) from thousands of people for fake investments.
Widyatmoko lauded cooperation between immigration and the national police for capturing foreign criminals who have tried to hide in Indonesia.
“This collaboration aims to make the ASEAN region an area free from transnational crime and criminal hiding,” Widyatmoko said.
Indonesia, an archipelago nation on the crossroads between Asia and the South Pacific, is attractive to local, regional and global organized crime because of its geographical location and its multi-cultural society.
Last month, Indonesia’s immigration officers in Bali arrested a Chinese suspect sought by Beijing for helping to run investment scams that brought in over $14 billion from clients in China.
Indonesian authorities in September arrested Alice Guo, a fugitive former mayor of a town in the Philippine accused of having links to Chinese criminal syndicates. She has since been deported to the Philippines.
In June, Chaowalit Thongduang, one of Thailand’s most wanted fugitives, was escorted back to Thailand on a Thai air force plane after being arrested in Bali following months on the run over allegations he was involved in several killings and drug trafficking.
Hector Aldwin Pantollana, center, accused of a multi million dollars casino investment scam in the Philippines, is escorted by immigration officers during a press conference following his arrest, at the office of the Directorate General of Immigration in Jakarta, Indonesia Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024.(AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)
Hector Aldwin Pantollana, center, accused of a multi million dollars casino investment scam in the Philippines, is escorted by immigration officers during a press conference following his arrest, at the office of the Directorate General of Immigration in Jakarta, Indonesia Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)
Hector Aldwin Pantollana, accused of a multi million dollars casino investment scam in the Philippines, is escorted by immigration officers during a press conference following his arrest, at the office of the Directorate General of Immigration in Jakarta, Indonesia Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are rising toward records Friday following the latest sign that the nation’s job market is doing better than economists expected.
The S&P 500 climbed 0.7% and was on track to top its all-time high after a report said U.S. employers added 115,000 more jobs than they cut last month, even though the war with Iran is raising fuel costs and uncertainty for everyone. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 15 points, or less than 0.1%, as of 11:45 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.3% higher and heading for its own record.
While hiring slowed from March’s level, it was nevertheless nearly double what economists expected. And it helped keep the S&P 500 on track for a sixth straight winning week, which would be its longest such streak since 2024. The U.S. stock market has blasted higher since late March, in part on hopes that the war will not mean a worst-case scenario for the global economy and that the Strait of Hormuz will reopen to allow oil tankers to deliver crude from the Persian Gulf again.
It’s still to be determined if those hopes are warranted or just wishful. U.S. forces fired on and disabled two Iranian oil tankers on Friday after exchanging fire with Iranian forces in the Strait of Hormuz overnight. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he hopes to receive “a serious offer” from Iran later in the day after Washington gave its latest proposal to end the war and reopen the strait.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil climbed 1.8% to $101.80 following the latest volleys of fire in the war. It's still much more expensive than it was before the fighting began, when it was at roughly $70 per barrel, but it's not as high as its heights above $119 during the war.
One big factor helping to support the U.S. stock market despite the war’s uncertainties is the strong profits that companies have been reporting for the start of 2026.
Monster Beverage jumped 14.5% after the energy drink maker joined the parade of companies topping analysts’ expectations for profit and revenue for the latest quarter. It benefited from strong growth outside the United States, and total net sales there made up about 45% of its total, the highest percentage ever for it.
Akamai Technologies leaped even more, 20.4%, after its results squeaked past expectations. It announced a $1.8 billion deal to provide cloud infrastructure services to an unnamed client over seven years. The cybersecurity and cloud computing company is benefiting from the surge in investment in artificial-intelligence technology.
Such voracious demand for AI helped CoreWeave report revenue for the latest quarter that was more than double what it was a year earlier, but its net loss was worse than analysts expected. It also gave a forecasted range for revenue in the current quarter whose midpoint fell below analysts’ expectations. The stock of the company, which offers AI computing power to customers over the cloud, fell 13.1%.
In stock markets abroad, indexes fell across much of Europe and Asia. Germany's DAX lost 1.4%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 0.9% for two of the bigger losses.
South Korea’s Kospi was an exception, and it inched up 0.1% to another all-time high.
In the bond market, Treasury yields eased and remained lower after a report suggested sentiment among U.S. consumers is still stuck near its lowest level since 2022. Consumers told the survey from the University of Michigan they're concerned about both high gasoline prices and tariffs, though their expectations for inflation in the coming year softened by a bit.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.36% from 4.41% late Thursday and from 4.45% early this week.
Lower yields can bring down rates for mortgages and other kinds of loans going to U.S. households and businesses, which in turn can give the economy a boost. Lower yields also tend to push upward on prices for stocks and other kinds of investments.
The 10-year Treasury yield, though, remains well above its 3.97% level from just before the war.
AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed to this report.
Options trader Justin Kanda works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, May 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
A dealer walks past near the screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (KOSDAQ) at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, May 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
The screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won are displayed at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, May 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A dealer walks past near the screens showing the foreign exchange rates at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, May 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A dealer walks past near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won and the Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (KOSDAQ) at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, May 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A dealer watches computer monitors at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, May 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
