BB not to sue NY Fed, SWIFT
Reserve heist
The central bank has no plans to file any case against the Federal Reserve Bank of New York or the SWIFT international money transfer network over the cyber heist of $81 million from a Bangladesh Bank account. Instead, the bank intends to seek their help to recover the $81 million stolen through cyber theft in February, said Bangladesh Bank spokesperson Shubhonkar Saha yesterday.
We will expect cooperation from them to recover the heist money he said. Bangladesh Bank is expecting to get back $15 million soon from the Philippines out of the $81 million stolen money as the official process over the matter is now at the final stage, he added.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said the final report on the $81 million heist from a Bangladesh Bank account held with the Federal Reserve Bank in New York will be disclosed in September.
There is a contemplation to unveil the report and disclose it publicly, he said while visiting the under construction building of National Board of Revenue (NBR) at Agargaon in the capital yesterday.
Housing Minister Engineer Mosharraf Hossain and NBR Chairman Nojibur Rahman were present.
The Finance Minister visited the site of the NBR Bhaban after the meeting of the Executive Committee of National Economic Council held at the NEC conference room at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in the city.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance Ministry, on August 11, demanded the publishing of the probe report on Bangladesh Banks reserve heist.
The watchdog expressed dismay over delays in making the probe report public. On May 30, a three-member body led by former central bank governor Mohammad Farashuddin submitted the probe report to Finance Minister AMA Muhith.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Bank has already sent affidavit and other necessary documents to the offices concerned in the Philippines as it will have to apply to a court there through affidavit from August 16 to 30 for return of the stolen funds, the central bank said in a statement on Sunday. The Department of Justice of Philippines will now apply to the court for returning back the money under Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) Request sent by Bangladesh, said the central bank statement.
Bangladesh Bank is also constantly maintaining contact with the Department of Justice and Anti-Money
Laundering Council of Philippines. Besides, other related documents were supplied from the bank to send to Bangladesh embassy in Philippines through diplomatic channel.
On February 4, unidentified hackers allegedly used SWIFT credentials of Bangladesh Bank employees to send more than three dozen fraudulent money transfer requests to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, asking the bank to transfer millions of Bangladesh Banks funds to bank accounts in the Philippines, Sri Lanka and other countries.
The hackers managed to get $81 million sent to Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation in the Philippines via four different transfer requests and an additional $20 million to Pan Asia Banking in a single request. But transfer instructions for some $850 million were halted by transacting banks.
The $81 million was deposited into four accounts of Rizal Bank in Manila on Feb. 4.
These accounts had all been opened a year earlier in May 2015, but had remained inactive with just $500 sitting in them until the stolen funds arrived in February this year.
