Securities Licenses Of British Banker Accused In Hong Kong Double Murder Expired: Report

Rurik Jutting_1 — Rurik George Caton Jutting, a British banker charged with two counts of murder, sits in a prison van as he leaves the Eastern Law Court in Hong Kong Nov. 3, 2014. Reuters/Tyrone Siu

British banker Rurik George Caton Jutting, who has been charged with the murder of two women in Hong Kong, had already lost his securities licenses at the time of the first killing on Oct.27, Reuters reported, citing records from the Securities and Futures Commission in Hong Kong. The licenses are reportedly mandatory for any financial professional operating in the city.

According to the Reuters report, Jutting held licenses sponsored by Bank of America Corp from Oct. 7, 2013 through Oct. 28, 2014, while his licenses with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority began on Nov. 7, 2013 and ended on Oct. 27, 2014. The crimes came to light after police searched the man’s upscale apartment in the city's Wan Chai neighborhood and found two bodies. Both victims were identified as Indonesian women by a consulate official on Tuesday, The Associated Press, or AP reported.

Seneng Mujiasih, a 29-year-old domestic worker from Muna, an island in the southeastern Sulawesi province of Indonesia, was found with wounds to her neck and buttocks on Nov. 1. Another woman, whose body was found inside a suitcase, had been previously identified as Sumarti Ningsih by Hong Kong police.

"Both of the women came from small cities," consulate spokesman Sam Aryadi said, according to AP. "We are working to have them sent back to their families."

Some local reports suggested that the dead women were sex workers.

"When I first met Jesse in HK she was working as a sex worker," a friend of Mujiasih, who works as a cleaner on the Indonesian island of Bali, told BBC. Mujiasih’s friend identified the victim as Jesse. "Jesse didn't want to become a sex worker, neither did the second girl. But Jesse needed to send money back to her family in Indonesia and help to build a house for her mother.”

Ningsih's father demanded that the killer be given a death sentence, The Telegraph reported.

"I ask the government of Indonesia to help me return my daughter to me. She was an Indonesian citizen. Please help return her body as soon as possible,” Ningsih’s father told BBC, adding that he believed that his daughter worked at a restaurant.