DHAKA: Bangladesh set to file a lawsuit against Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) of Philippines, with a New York court Wednesday (Jan 30), over the heist of $81 million from Bangladesh Bank (BB) reserve. 

BB Governor Fazle Kabir made the disclosure at a program here on the same day.

“The case will be filed to recover the reserve money of BB stolen from its account at Federal Reserve Bank of New York in United States and to bring the guilty to book,” he said.

“Those were benefitted from the reserve theft and those were involved in it are being accused in the case,” he added.

The BB governor said all necessary preparations have been done to file the case.  

The BB 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 Five transactions issued by hackers, worth $101 million and withdrawn from a BB account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, succeeded, with $20 million traced to Sri Lanka (since recovered) and $81 million to the Philippines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.

BDST: 1724 HRS, JAN 30, 2019
SI