Joynal Abedin Khan :
Several teams of intelligence agencies have launched the investigation into the hacking of Bangladesh Bank (BB) reserve from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
They have been keeping eyes on some police personnel and bank officials and the foreigners as well.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) also told the media that at least seven cop members might have link with the incident. Some BB officials are also under watch.
However, the identities of the suspected persons have not been disclosed for the sake of proper investigation, he DMP officials said.
Meanwhile, DMP Additional Commissioner and Chief of Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit Monirul Islam said, “We have received some information against at least seven police personnel in connection with the BB scam.”
DMP has already launched an investigation into the allegations of cops involvement in the Bangladesh Bank’s hacking incident, the DMP spokesman told the reporters in a press briefing at DMP Media Center on Sunday.
He said that two arrested persons have confessed of their link in a Dhaka court few days ago.
“Legal actions will be taken against the guilty police personnel, if any. If any one of them involved fled the country, they will be brought back with the help of Interpol,” the police official said.
The intelligence team will justify the confessional statement of concerned policemen given to the court after receiving the documents and necessary papers, the detective official said.
In replying to a query regarding the names of some cop members, the DMP Additional Commissioner said, “Some police members are under our surveillance. They have not been transferred nor sacked from the service. .”
Monirul Islam also claimed that some officials of the Bangladesh Bank and other institutions might have connection with the scam.
Police will interrogate who are really guilty, he said.
On the other hand, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has also started a ‘shadow investigation’ into the cyber heist in which Bangladesh central bank lost over $80 million, even though no case has been registered as yet.
Director of the RAB Media Wing Mufti Mahmud Khan said that they had started suo moto inquiry into the matter immediately after learning about the heist.
“Some of our experts went to the Bangladesh Bank for information. They are looking into it,” he said.
While there is no separate wing for probing economic offences, detective and cyber crimes prevention wings are jointly working on this matter, according to the RAB source.
In addition to stealing credentials for processing transfers, the hackers might have spied on Bangladesh Bank staff to get a deeper understanding of the central bank’s operations, according to experts in banking fraud.
Inquiry officials reported that fund were transferred into bank accounts in the Philippines and Sri Lanka using Bangladesh Bank’s SWIFT code.
The Bangladesh Bank also admitted that $81 million had been transferred from the Bangladesh Bank account maintained with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to the Philippines and another $20 billion in Sri Lanka.
