Special Correspondent :
An advance team of Bangladesh Bank is expected to leave for USA on Sunday night to file a lawsuit in a court there for the recovery of its $81 million reserve fund stolen from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
The other team will go to the USA to join them after January 30, announcing monetary policy.
Officials said that the case would be filed against the Philippines Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) where the money was headed after unidentified hackers managed to funnel the fund breaking Fed’s SWIFT messaging system.
The money was transferred to a Manila branch of the RCBC, then quickly withdrawn and laundered through local casinos.
Manila returned only $15 million out of $81 by the order of a regional Philippine Court in November 2016.
“Bangladesh Bank will file a lawsuit for recovery of its reserve fund stolen from the Federal Reserve Bank in New York,” Bangladesh Bank (BB) official told The New Nation yesterday on condition of anonymity.
He said a ‘damage claim suit will be filed with a New York court accusing the Philippines bank.
BB has already appointed two New York-based law firms for assisting the legal procedure.
As per the US law, a lawsuit related to damage claims has to be filed within three years from the date of the occurrence of an incident, meaning case must be filed by February this year.
According to a BB report of February 4, 2016, the hackers attempted to steal $1,926 million from the central bank account with the New York Fed through 70 fake payment instructions.
Of the amount, one payment order of $20 million was sent to Sri Lanka, which the BB later got back.
Hackers took to the Philippines $81 million from the central bank’s account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York using four fake orders on the SWIFT payments system.
Later, the money was sent to accounts with the Manila-based Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC), from where it disappeared into the casino industry in the Philippines. So far, Bangladesh was able to retrieve $15 million from the Philippines.
