Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
Bangladesh Bank (BB) on Tuesday claimed that it has concrete evidences regarding the illicit transfer of $81 million from its reserve account maintained with the US Federal Reserve Bank.
Unidentified hackers attempted to steal almost $1 billion from the BB’s account in February. While the authorities blocked most of the illicit transfers, $81 million slipped to Rizal Commercial Bank Corporation (RCBC) in the Philippines.
“We have enough evidence that the money ($81 million) was laundered through the Philippine bank. Later, it was withdrawn from the bank despite BB’s request to halt the payment,” BB spokesman Subhankar Saha told The New Nation on Tuesday evening. “We will also go for a lawsuit if necessary to retrieve the money from Philippines bank,” he added.
The BB spokesman came up with the claim that the money was stolen from BB when the Philippines Anti-Money Laundering Council’s Director General Julia Bacay-Abad on Tuesday said that the turnover of the $81 million to the Bangladesh authorities would depend on concrete evidence and a lawsuit regarding the money-laundering.
Abad, however, hoped to return the $81 million stolen fund to Bangladesh in three months once these formalities are completed.
“I hope it will only take within three months, but I am not so sure if it will take three months,” Abad said in an interview in a local media after she confirmed that the Manila Regional Trial Court had issued a Provisional Assets Preservation Order, or PAPO, on the frozen funds as well as the $4.63 million earlier turned over by casino junket operator Kim Wong.
“That (PAPO) covers the money that was turned over to the AMLC for safekeeping (by Wong), including the money frozen by the AMLC by virtue of the freeze order from the Court of Appeals on 1 March,” Abad said.
“The PAPO is good for 20 days and during that 20-day, the court will set the date of the summary hearing and to determine whether an Asset Preservation Order” should be issued, she explained.
She said that after three months, all the money subjected to the forfeiture proceedings filed by the AMLC can be returned immediately to the Bangladesh government, provided no opposition is filed before the court.
“I hope it will take only that long three months because we don’t expect any opposition from any party. So if there is no opposition, the court will allow the AMLC to present evidence that will make the proceeding expeditious,” Abad said.
The rules covering forfeiture proceedings, she said, allow any person or party — in this case, the Bangladeshi government — with a claim over a forfeited amount to file a verified petition with the same court that ordered the forfeiture.
“So, in other words, the Bangladesh government, which has a claim on the forfeited money, should file a verified petition with the court,” Abad said. “Then the court will issue another order to return the money to the claimant.”
“With the assistance of the Solicitor General, we filed the proceedings last Friday,” she added.
Regarding the steps taken by the Philippines authorities, the BB spokesman Subhankar Saha said, the money-laundering scheme is under investigation by the country’s Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, central bank and the AMLC.
“They are serious about the case and the Philippines AMLC has already filed criminal complaints against two Chinese businessmen who were allegedly involved in laundering of $81 million BB’s stolen fund through the Philippine financial system,” he said.
Besides, the authorities of RCBC also fired two of its officials for withdrawing the fund through four fake bank accounts. The officials are also facing probe by the country’s Senate Blue Ribbon Committee for facilitating the release of the stolen funds. The body also conducted its 6th hearing on the money-laundering case on Tuesday.
The BB spokesperson also said that they have been maintaining close contact with the Philippines authorities to bring back the money.
