DHAKA: Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said a case will be filed by this month to get back the money stolen from Bangladesh Bank (BB) reserve.

Against whom the case will be filed hasn’t been fixed yet, he said.

“But, case will be filed in specific time,” he added.

The minister was talking to the reporters after holding a meeting on how the stolen money of the central bank can be recovered.

BB Governor Fazle Kabir and Financial Institutions Division Secretary Asadul Islam, among others, were present.

AHM Mustafa Kamal said the case can be filed by Feb 3 and has to be filed in New York where the heist took place.

The Bangladesh Bank heist took place in Feb 2016, when instructions to steal US$951 million from the central bank of Bangladesh, were issued via the SWIFT network. Five transactions issued by hackers, worth $101 million and withdrawn from a Bangladesh Bank account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, succeeded, with $20 million traced to Sri Lanka (since recovered) and $81 million to the Philippines (about $18 million recovered). The New York Fed blocked the remaining thirty transactions, amounting to $850 million, at the request of Bangladesh Bank.

Following the massive theft, the then BB governor Atiur Rahman was forced to resign and major reshuffle was made in the senior level officials.

BDST: 1653 HRS, JAN 20, 2019
SI/SMS