Staff Reporter :
A Bangladesh Bank (BB) team reached Manila on Monday to get back $15 million, part of $81 million, which was stolen in February from its account maintained with the New York Federal Reserve and laundered in the Philippines bank, officials said.
Earlier, the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Manila ordered the release of $15 million to Bangladesh central bank declaring Bangladesh as the rightful owner of the heist money which had been surrendered by casino operator Kim Wong and forfeited by the Philippine government.
The money is currently under the care of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the central bank of Philippines.
A BB official confirmed the visit by their officials to retrieve the money.
“A BB team now in Manila to get back portions of BB’s heist fund, which a Manila court earlier ordered to hand over to Bangladesh,” he said.
He said that, they had gone to Philippines to complete the process with the BSP to get back the fund.
Wong, who returned $4.63 million and 488.28 million pesos ($10.05 million) to Philippine authorities from the millions of dollars he took from two Chinese high-rollers, has denied any role in one of the world’s biggest cyber heists.
The $15 million recovered from the total heisted is now secure in the vaults of the Philippine central bank, said John Gomes, Bangladesh’s ambassador to the Philippines, who attended a count of the money last week.
“The writ of execution that the money be handed back to Bangladesh has already been done by the court,” Gomes said. “The good thing is now that the process on this $15 million is more or less completed, we will go for the rest.”
A Bangladesh Bank (BB) team reached Manila on Monday to get back $15 million, part of $81 million, which was stolen in February from its account maintained with the New York Federal Reserve and laundered in the Philippines bank, officials said.
Earlier, the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Manila ordered the release of $15 million to Bangladesh central bank declaring Bangladesh as the rightful owner of the heist money which had been surrendered by casino operator Kim Wong and forfeited by the Philippine government.
The money is currently under the care of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the central bank of Philippines.
A BB official confirmed the visit by their officials to retrieve the money.
“A BB team now in Manila to get back portions of BB’s heist fund, which a Manila court earlier ordered to hand over to Bangladesh,” he said.
He said that, they had gone to Philippines to complete the process with the BSP to get back the fund.
Wong, who returned $4.63 million and 488.28 million pesos ($10.05 million) to Philippine authorities from the millions of dollars he took from two Chinese high-rollers, has denied any role in one of the world’s biggest cyber heists.
The $15 million recovered from the total heisted is now secure in the vaults of the Philippine central bank, said John Gomes, Bangladesh’s ambassador to the Philippines, who attended a count of the money last week.
“The writ of execution that the money be handed back to Bangladesh has already been done by the court,” Gomes said. “The good thing is now that the process on this $15 million is more or less completed, we will go for the rest.”
