Staff Reporter :
Bangladesh Bank will file a lawsuit with a New York court by this month over the heist of $81 million from its account with the US Federal Reserve Bank.
“We are taking preparation to file the case. The case will be filed with New York court by this month to recover Bangladesh Bank’s heist fund,” Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal told reporters on Sunday.
A Bangladesh team comprising officials of Bangladesh Bank, Finance and Law Ministries recently visited New York for talks regarding the filing of the case process.
Four New York-based law firms have shown interest to assist Bangladesh Bank (BB) in its planned legal fight for recovering its stolen fund and ultimately laundered in the Philippines.
“Lawyers of Bangladesh and the USA are looking after the matter. They will decide who will be made accused in the case. The final decision in this regard is yet to be taken,” said Mustafa Kamal.
The minister came up with the statement after a meeting with the officials of Financial Institutions Division and Bangladesh Bank on BB’s reserve heist at the Finance Ministry.
Bangladesh Bank governor Dr Fazle Kabir and Financial Institutions Division Secretary M Ashadul Islam were present, among others, at the meeting. In February 2016, unknown criminals used fraudulent orders on the SWIFT payments system to steal $81 million from the BB’s account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in one of the world’s biggest cyber heists.
The money was transferred to a Manila branch of the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp (RCBC), then quickly withdrawn and laundered through local casinos.
Bangladesh has so far recovered around $18 million of the $81 million transferred to the Philippines.
A Philippine court recently convicted RCBC’s former branch manager Maia Deguito in connection with the cyber heist of Bangladesh Bank.
The Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 149 convicted Deguito of eight counts of violation of the Anti-Money Laundering Act and acquitted her of one due to its similarity with one of the eight other cases.
She was sentenced to four to seven years imprisonment for each count and ordered to pay more than $109 million in fine.
“Bangladesh Bank has been working seriously to file the case. Both the Federal Reserve Bank and RCBC will be made accused in the case as they received the fund and disbursed it,” a senior BB official told The New Nation yesterday on condition of anonymity.
He said the case is most likely to be filed in the first week of February. Two US based law firms have been appointed as consultant.
