Uganda Releases One of Bulgarian Alleged ATM Fraudsters - Report

One of the four Bulgarians, who were arrested at the end of August in Uganda's capital Kampala on allegations of operating an ATM skimming scam, is heading back home, according to his family.

Anton Ivanov, 22, was arrested together with Milen Katsarski, Adrian Dimitrov and Ivan Ganchev Emilov as they were withdrawing money from the automated teller machine (ATM) machine at Stanbic Bank in the capital suburb of Nateete.

Anton has been cleared of all charges and will be traveling back to Bulgaria after receveing last week money from his parents to pay for the trip, local newspaper Struma reported.

The young man's parents reportedly flew to Uganda last month.

A month after their first detention, the four Bulgarians were re-arrested despite having secured bail.

After being granted bail, the suspects refused to leave court fearing they would be re-arrested by plain clothed police officers. This prompted police officers to forcefully enter the courtroom, re-arrest them one by one and take them to the nearby CPS.

Back then local media said the Bulgarians were facing 30 counts of forgery.

The men were allegedly using a microchip and a phone battery to gain access to all the bank customers' accounts. Then they picked the accounts, holding huge sums, made ATM cards and withdrew the money. After changing them into dollars, the Bulgarians wired the money to bank accounts in their home country, the police said.