Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
The government has halted the release of Bangladesh Bank’s cyber heist probe report after request from the Philippines central bank and the US Fed.
They made the request sending letters to the Ministry of Finance and Bangladesh Bank, officials said.
“The government has decided to keep the report under wrap following request from the Philippines Central Bank and the New York Fed,” a senior Finance Ministry official told The New Nation on Saturday. He said they made the appeal for the proper conclusion to the investigation into the sensational cyber theft in their countries and recovery of the stolen fund.
The letter of Philippines central bank governor assured Bangladesh authorities to get back the stolen fund that was funneled through Philippines banking system.
The government was scheduled to make public the findings the probe on September 21.
A day before the planned release, Finance Minister AMA Muhith postponed its publication saying that the government stopped making it public as such a move can undermine efforts to retrieve the $81 million that is still missing.
The Finance Ministry official also said that the government is seeking to get the $81 million heist fund back through negotiation with Philippines authorities.
“Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has given the commitment that his country would return the fund to Bangladesh. A high-level Bangladesh delegation will visit to Manila next month to meet the Filipino President seeking his help to recover the money,” he said.
Cyber criminals tried to steal nearly $1 billion from Bangladesh Bank’s account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in February, and succeeded in transferring $81 million to four accounts at Manila’s Rizal Commercial Banking Corp (RCBC). The money was then laundered through the city’s casinos, according to investigators.
Earlier, a Philippine court ordered its central bank to return to Bangladesh a portion of recovered fund.
The court also declared Bangladesh as the rightful owner of the funds, totalling $15.25 million.
Quoting the letter of Philippines central bank (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) governor, the finance ministry official said, the bank held RCBC responsible for illegally transferring the fund because it did not follow a stop-payment request from Bangladesh Bank (BB).
“If necessary, we would impose fine on RCBC for their wrongdoings and hand over the amount to Bangladesh authorities as part our commitment to return the full amount of the stolen fund,” it added.
The governor also expressed the optimism that his country would return $81 million stolen money within three to four months.
Meanwhile, the Philippines central bank is yet to release the $15.25 million recovered fund to Bangladesh as a complexity arises over the mode of transfer of the fund.
