The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) yesterday interrogated the former Bangladesh Bank (BB) governor, Dr Atiur Rahman, for about two hours on the theft of BB reserves by hackers earlier in February this year. The former governor reached the CID office at Malibagh in the capital around 10am and left around 12pm. Sources said the CID officials asked Dr Rahman as to what action he had taken following one of the biggest-ever cyber heists involving USD 101 million from its accounts with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Another source, however, said all information regarding the interrogation of the former governor would be kept secret as there are directives from the government’s top brass. When the hacking incident took place, Dr Rahman was the central bank’s governor. He tried to recover the money but the hacking incident was leaked in the media and the governor faced strong criticism. Dr Rahman resigned from the governor’s post on March 15 this year after holding talks with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. His resignation came amidst a political firestorm over the cyber heist, which caused Bangladesh to lose more than USD 101 million kept with the Federal Reserve Bank.
The incident came to light when the Philippine’s ‘Daily Inquirer’ ran a report on February 29 that the country was probing a money laundering incident involving cross-border electronic funds transfer. It said that USD 101 million was wire-transferred on February 4 from the Bangladesh Bank’s US account to accounts in local banks.
The BB kept the government and its board of directors in the dark about the heist for around a month. Finance minister AMA Muhith first came to know about the incident only from media reports. After the heist, the finance ministry formed a probe committee led by former BB governor Farashuddin to investigate the incident. The probe committee said the incident took place due to negligence of some central bank officials. Besides, the CID has been investigating the matter. It has questioned at least 30 BB officials. The CID has far questioned at least 23 persons from different countries, including Singapore and the Philippines. The CID, which is also taking Interpol’s assistance, said the investigation was halfway done. BB has so far got back USD 15.25 million from the Philippines’ anti-money laundering council, nine months after the hackers stole the money from the Reserve Bank on November 11. A court in the Philippines said in September that the BB was the rightful owner of around USD 15 million surrendered by casino junket operator Kim Wong. Later, BB sources said they were trying to get back all the stolen money through the legal process.