FORT NELSON, B.C. -- A Korean family is packing its bags to leave this northern B.C. town after losing its final appeal against deportation. Kyu Man Jeong, his wife and two daughters were supposed to go Tuesday. But immigration officials have given them a few more days to organize their departure, family friend Ken Yoon, who helped bankroll their bid to stay, said Wednesday. The Jeongs tried unsuccessfully to stay in Canada as refugees on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. They said they feared for their lives in Korea because of money owed by the father to gangsters in a fraud and corruption scandal. Kyu Man Jeong served a couple of years in a Korean prison for running a complex fraud scheme involving worthless bonds used to pay taxes and fees on new automobiles, said lawyer Nathan Bauder, who took over the family's case for free last year. Jeong racked up debts trying to keep the plan afloat and has said he fears the gangsters could force his daughters, aged 19 and 22, into prostitution to pay his debt. Jeong's family came to Canada on visitors' visas about six years ago, followed by Jeong after he was released from jail. They lived in the Vancouver area before moving to Fort Nelson. While here, Jeong was diagnosed with stomach and liver cancer and underwent surgery. But judges reviewing the deportation heard no solid medical evidence he would be harmed by the lengthy trip home, Bauder said. The family has been told it's free to apply for re-entry into Canada once it returns to Korea but the drawn out deportation will complicate that, the lawyer said. "It may require ministerial authorization for them to come back," he said. Yoon said the family filed six or seven appeals of their original deportation order. He said he lent them several thousand dollars to fund the legal effort before Bauder took over, but has little hope of getting the money back. The family's prospects in Korea look questionable, said Yoon. They could live at Jeong's mother's home in Seoul but they suspect the home is being watched by criminals. "He has some sisters and some brothers but they don't even know where they live," said Yoon. Jeong's wife also expects to be interrogated and jailed in connection with the corruption case, said Yoon.