Staff Reporter :
The government has decided to file a case against the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp- oration of the Philippines (RCBC) over the cyber heist of $81 million from Bangladesh Bank’s reserve account held with NY Federal Reserve Bank.
“We will file a lawsuit against the RCBC as it has refused to return the heist fund of Bangladesh Bank,” Finance Minister AMA Muhith told reporters after attending a function in the city on Saturday.
He said, the government of Bangladesh has discussed the matter with the Philippines authorities several times. “They have assured us of full cooperation regarding the matter. Now they are making dilly-dally to pay back the money compelling the government to file a case against the RCBC,” he added.
Muhith further said he would talk with the central bank authorities in this regard.
The RCBC recently said it was not liable to compensate Bangladesh for the heist money deposited in its accounts and instead blamed the Bangladesh Bank (BB) for being “negligent”.
The RCBC said it would not compensate Bangladesh because of the initial security breach was Bangladesh’s own fault. A high-level delegation from Bangladesh including Law Minister Anisul Huq and Bangladesh Bank Governor Fazle Kabir earlier visited Manila to push for the recovery of the stolen money.
Authorities of RCBC also assured the Bangladesh team that it would return the money if found liable.
Unknown cyber criminals tried to steal nearly $1bn from the Bangladesh Bank in February in one of the biggest ever bank frauds. They succeeded in transferring around $81m from an account maintained with the New York Federal Reserve to four accounts in fake names opened in a branch of Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) in Manila. A lion part of the money have laundered through casinos in Manila and remains missing.
