Reserve Heist: BB to get back $29m more soon

Bangladesh Bank is expected to get back around $29 million of its heisted reserve from the Philippines soon as a Philippines court has already delivered a verdict in favour of the central bank.

“Several cases are underway at different Philippines courts for recovering the total money.... The defendant has filed an appeal with the higher court against the verdict,” BB Deputy Governor Abu Hena Mohd Razee Hassan told BSS yesterday.

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

Hackers stole $101 m from BB accounts at the New York Fed in February 2016. Of the amount, $81 million was transferred to four accounts at RCBC in Manila and another $20 million to a bank in Sri Lanka.

But the transfer of $20 million to Sri Lanka failed because of a spelling error by the hackers. Later, the BB was able to retrieve about $15 million from the Philippines.

Of the rest $66 m, around $51 m has already been traced, said Razee Hassan.

“Another court will deliver its verdict on the rest on the traced money. I hope the verdict will also be in favour of Bangladesh Bank.”

He said the BB was making all kinds of efforts to trace the untraced money soon.

The deputy governor said BB was also taking preparations to file a lawsuit against the Filipino Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) within the stipulated time to recover the total heisted money.

Earlier, BB lawyer Ajmalul Hossain QC said they were taking preparations to file a case as early as possible.

He said a case was likely to be filed with a US court and the BB might complete all preparations, including consultation with lawyers, within two to three months.