Eight Israelis accused of from the Philippines have been released from prison according to documents given to Finance Magnates. Their release comes a week after they were arrested following a raid on a call center by Filipino authorities.

According to the documents obtained by Finance Magnates, the individuals did not meet the legal requirements that would enable police to arrest someone without a warrant. As a result, the state prosecutor ordered their release, noting that they were “not committing any offense” at the time of their arrest.

The eight Israelis are thought to have been managing the boiler room operation from an office just north of Manila. Under their command were 474 Filipinos who were making cold calls targeting prospective clients in Europe, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, and Russia.

The operation resembled almost every other unregulated broker business set up over the past few years. Trading under a name that had no connection to its service offering, International Branding Development Marketing, the firm attempted to convince clients it was based in London to lend itself a facade of legitimacy.

Police arrested 474 employees of a trading company in Pampanga on Wednesday for their alleged involvement in cybercrime.

— CNN Philippines (@cnnphilippines)

European exodus

The strange setting of last week’s arrest is in part due to a clampdown on unregulated brokers by formerly lax governments. In the past couple of months, and have raided unregulated binary options and FX brokers in their respective countries as they try to forge closer ties to the EU.

Despite their release, it is unclear as to what is going to happen to the newly liberated Israeli managerial team. Documents obtained by Finance Magnates indicate that authorities are still pursuing their investigation which suggests there may still be a case against them in the future. Having said this, Finance Magnates understands that the firm is considering restarting its operations.