Economic Reporter :
Bangladesh Bank (BB) is going to file a lawsuit in April against Filipino Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) to recover the money heisted from the central bank’s account with Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said Finance Minister AMA Muhith.
“We have already taken a decision to sue RCBC in New York. We told the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to submit the investigation report in this regard soon for accelerating the preparations of filling the case,” he told journalists after a review meeting on the heisted money recovery process at the Finance Ministry in the city on Sunday.
High officials of the Bangladesh Bank and CID attended the meeting.
Responding to a question, Muhith said a USA based law firm will be appointed for conducting the case.
A meeting source said more time will be needed to complete the preparations for filing the case against RCBC. Bangladesh will have to file the case with the US court within February 2019, the source added.
Earlier, Ajmalul Hossain QC, a member of BB’s legal team, at a press conference said BB, Federal Reserve Bank and global financial messaging service SWIFT will file the case against the RCBC soon in a New York court.
“We are going to file the case in a New York court. We are discussing with Federal Reserve Bank for suing as they are also a victim of this heist. So, BB, Fed and SWIFT will jointly file the case,” he said.
He said the Philippines government is providing all sorts of legal support to Bangladesh for recovering the heisted reserve money.
Hackers stole a total $101 million from Bangladesh’s account at the New York Fed in February 2016. Of the amount, $81 million was transferred to four accounts at RCBC in Manila and another $20 million to a bank in Sri Lanka.
But the transfer of $20 million to Sri Lanka had failed because of a spelling error by the hackers. Later, BB was able to retrieve about $15 million from Philippines.
Of the rest of the $66 million, about $51.5 million has already been traced and the legal procedures are going on to recover the whole heisted money.
Bangladesh Bank (BB) is going to file a lawsuit in April against Filipino Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) to recover the money heisted from the central bank’s account with Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said Finance Minister AMA Muhith.
“We have already taken a decision to sue RCBC in New York. We told the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to submit the investigation report in this regard soon for accelerating the preparations of filling the case,” he told journalists after a review meeting on the heisted money recovery process at the Finance Ministry in the city on Sunday.
High officials of the Bangladesh Bank and CID attended the meeting.
Responding to a question, Muhith said a USA based law firm will be appointed for conducting the case.
A meeting source said more time will be needed to complete the preparations for filing the case against RCBC. Bangladesh will have to file the case with the US court within February 2019, the source added.
Earlier, Ajmalul Hossain QC, a member of BB’s legal team, at a press conference said BB, Federal Reserve Bank and global financial messaging service SWIFT will file the case against the RCBC soon in a New York court.
“We are going to file the case in a New York court. We are discussing with Federal Reserve Bank for suing as they are also a victim of this heist. So, BB, Fed and SWIFT will jointly file the case,” he said.
He said the Philippines government is providing all sorts of legal support to Bangladesh for recovering the heisted reserve money.
Hackers stole a total $101 million from Bangladesh’s account at the New York Fed in February 2016. Of the amount, $81 million was transferred to four accounts at RCBC in Manila and another $20 million to a bank in Sri Lanka.
But the transfer of $20 million to Sri Lanka had failed because of a spelling error by the hackers. Later, BB was able to retrieve about $15 million from Philippines.
Of the rest of the $66 million, about $51.5 million has already been traced and the legal procedures are going on to recover the whole heisted money.
