Special Correspondent :
The Central Bank has finally decided to file a joint lawsuit against the Philippines’ Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation and the US Federal Reserve Bank amid growing uncertainty over retrieving major chunk of its heist fund.
The case will be filed with a New York court by January next year, a month before ending the deadline of filing the lawsuit.
The decision was come from an inter-agency taskforce meeting held at the Bangladesh Secretariat on Sunday, with Senior Secretary of Bank and Financial Institutions Division (BFID) and head of taskforce in chair.
Unidentified hackers stole $81 million in February 2016 from the Bangladesh Bank (BB) account with the US Federal Reserve in New York. The money was transferred to a Manila branch of the RCBC and then quickly withdrawn and laundered through local casinos.
BB has so far been able to get back only about $15 million out of the US$81 million stolen fund despite repeated assurance from the Philippine government.
“The taskforce reviewed the progress of recovering the BB’s stolen fund and came to conclusion that a lawsuit should be filed to get back the fund,” a key member of the taskforce told The New Nation yesterday wishing not to be named.
The government formed the taskforce to expedite the recovery of the BB’s heist fund.
“We have decided to file a joint lawsuit against the RCBC with the US Federal Reserve Bank amid uncertainty over recovering the major chunk of the heist fund from Philippines. The case will be filed by January 2019,” a key member of the taskforce told The New Nation yesterday wishing not to be named.
He said the Central Bank has already discussed the matter with four law firms based in New York. It will pick up one among them for the legal battle.
“BB is expected to strike a deal with the selected firm soon and the firm will conduct a fact-finding mission in Bangladesh to collect the necessary credentials to file the case. All the procedure regarding filing the case will be completed by November,” he said.
The taskforce official, however, said the case would be filed prior to approval from the government’s high-ups.
When asked, the task force official said that the Central Bank took time for filing the lawsuit considering various aspects of law, expenses and bilateral relations with the countries where the stolen money headed for.
“Running a case with an international court is highly expensive and time consuming,” he said, adding, “But we have no other option, but to file the case amid growing uncertainty over recovering the fund through bilateral negotiation.”
He also said that the government continues to maintain communication with Philippines’ authorities to get back US$66 million more stolen fund from the country.
“If we get the fund then we will be filing the case to recover US$37 million heist fund. Otherwise, we have to file the case against the Federal Reserve Bank claming the total amount of the BB’s heist fund.”
According to international laws, Bangladesh’s central bank must file the lawsuit within three years of the cyber heist.
“We will be able to win the case as the Federal Reserve Bank being the custodian of BB’s reserve account accepted that the fund was transferred from its account as a result of cyber hacking,” said the taskforce member.
“Several cases are underway in different Philippines courts for recovering the total money. We’re expecting to get back US$29 million out of US$66 million from the Philippines as a court of the country has already delivered a verdict in favour of the Bangladesh Central Bank,” he said.
