Bangladesh Bank has formally informed Finance Ministry about the detail of the money, which was allegedly sto from the account of Bangladesh Bank with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Bangladesh Bank assistant spokesman and general manager AFM Asaduzzaman informed that the central bank communicated the Finance Ministry immediately after the recovery.
“Bangladesh Bank officially informed the Finance Ministry through a letter on Monday”, he told UNB.
However, speaking at a separate event the Finance Minister earlier said that he is not aware of the money recovered as the central bank did not inform him about the matter.
Bangladesh Bank did not officially disclose the exact figure which was hacked. But it has since been learnt that about $100 million had been hacked and later $20 million was recovered on Monday.
The hackers transferred the hacked money to banks of the Philippines and Sri Lanka by using online system.
A central bank press statement issued on Monday said Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) of the central bank is now working with its counterpart-the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) of the Philippines – actively to recover the rest of the stolen money.
It also said the AMLC has already been able to receive account-freezing orders for respective bank accounts from their court after the filing of case in this connection.
The AMLC has already filed a case in the Philippines in this regard and collected the court order to freeze accounts involved in the hacking. Besides, a World Bank cyber expert and his Forensic Investigation team are working with the BB team in this regard.
The central bank will take legal step to recover the rest money soon after the AMLC completes its investigation, the press release added.
