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Bangladesh Bank Heist

Dhaka wants fined money back, identities of perpetrators


Published : 03 Dec 2019 09:02 PM | Updated : 27 Aug 2020 05:38 AM

The Philippines authorities have assured of providing all types of supports to Bangladesh so that it could get millions of dollars, which were stolen from the Bangladesh Bank, back. Philippines made the assurance in a respond to Bangladesh’s request to provide information and details of the perpetrators involved in the central bank heist.

Foreign Secretary (Asia Pacific) Masud bin Momen made the disclosure while emerging out of a foreign office consultation with a Philippine’s delegation at the state guest house Meghna on Tuesday. Momen said, “We wanted a share of the money that was fined to Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC). But they said it was done as per the Filipino law. So, they cannot do it.”

“Our demand remain continued and they are moving ahead amid legal complexity”, he said. Mentioning the cyber heist or cybercrime as an emerging phenomenon, he said, “Today, Bangladesh is a victim of it. It might happen to other countries. There are vulnerabilities for all. We are stressing more cooperation between Bangladesh and the Philippines to find out a solution to it.”

“I told the Philippines delegations that we can set an example if we can resolve it cordially to the best of our ability,” he added. He expects it will be solved today or tomorrow. Earlier, the cyber-criminals stole $101 million from Bangladesh Bank's reserves deposited with the US Federal Reserve Bank in February 2016.

They channeled the money into bank accounts at the RCBC in Manila by placing 70 fraudulent orders on the SWIFT payments system. Nearly $20 millions of the sum could be recovered from Sri Lanka. The lion's share of the booty landed in the Philippines and that is reported to have been squandered through gaming in casinos, among other matters of misdealing. Later, some $15 million more could be recovered from the Philippines.

However, there is no headway in the recovery of the remaining amount, over $66 million, from the Philippines. In this regard, officials of the finance ministry and the BB were finding for options to settle the issue. Now they believe that recovery of the remaining $66 million from RCBC might not be possible without a legal battle.

Momen said they discussed all the components of bilateral relations between the two countries, including migration, climate change and disaster risk reduction where the two countries share experiences.