Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370: Conspiracy Fears As $35,000 Vanishes From Passenger Accounts

A new mystery surrounding the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 this week raised new fears about another round of conspiracy theories that could upset families of the passengers on the vanished flight. Police have revealed that in July, bank withdrawals totaling about $35,000 were made from the accounts of four passengers who went missing along with the plane.

The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200 vanished on March 8 while making a routine flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing, China. While a massive, multi-nation investigation has led to the conclusion that the plane took an unscheduled, sharp turn to the west and flew for hours until crashing somewhere in the Indian Ocean, no trace of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight has yet been found.

With the mystery only deepening in the more than five months since the plane disappeared, various conspiracy theories have arisen to explain what happened to the flight, including the highly improbable belief that the plane landed safely somewhere and the passengers are still alive.

With thousands of dollars now vanishing from the Malaysian bank accounts of four passengers, those conspiracy theories could possibly rise again.

But the good news is, police in Malaysia now have suspects who they believe engineered a scheme to steal the money.

Two of the four passengers whose bank accounts were infiltrated are Chinese nationals. The other two are Malaysian, including one who was a steward working on board Malaysia Airline Flight MH370.

Police say that the suspects drained money from the accounts of three of the missing passengers and deposited it into an account in the name of the fourth passenger.

Kuala Lumpur police chief Datuk Tajuddin Md Isa also said that police suspect that the money was finally deposited into a fifth bank account, but the owner of that account is unknown. The illegal transactions were conducted through the internet.

“We believe this is an inside job involving a bank employee,” said Malaysia’s Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar.

Police in Malaysia declined to name suspects or get into further specifics on the theft case victimizing the missing Malaysia Airlines passengers. But the wife of one if those four passengers says that the police still haven’t told her what’s going on — and neither has the bank.

“I did not check my husband’s bank account. It is all private and confidential. When I asked the bank, they said the case was still under investigation,” said 35-year-old Elaine Chew Oai Poh, whose husband Tan Size Hiang was on board Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.

Police did not name the banks involved in the theft.

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members when it disappeared without a trace.