Philippine DOJ clears junket operators in Bangladeshi bank heist

The Philippine Department of Justice (DOJ) has affirmed the dismissal of a criminal case filed against two junket operators earlier tagged in last year’s Bangladeshi bank heist.

DOJ Senior Deputy State Prosecutor Emilie Fe De Los Santos has dismissed the criminal complaint that the anti-money laundering watchdog filed against casino junket operator Kim Wong and Weikang Xu due to insufficiency of evidence, according to a Philippine Daily Inquirer report.

The criminal complaint against Wong and Xu stemmed from the February 2016 unauthorized transfer of $81m from Bangladeshi Bank accounts at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York to accounts at the RCBC branch managed by Deguito.

The identity of those who initiated the transfer remains unproven, but suspicions have focused on hackers working for the North Korean government.