The Bangladesh Bank (BB) is optimistic to get back soon the money stolen from its reserves as it has currently engaged in an active arbitration process with Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) of the Philippines concerning the recovery of the funds.
“We’re now providing efforts into both mechanisms- arbitration and case. RCBC also wants to solve it through arbitration. We already sat with RCBC in Singapore. In the US court, our case is also running. According to our lawyer, verdict will come on behalf of Bangladesh. Moreover, we are also hopeful that the arbitration mechanism will lead to return the money soon,” said a BB official concerned. Talking to BSS, the official familiar with the process said that the central bank has put forward a substantial claim, including principal amount, interest and legal cost to RCBC.
The BB reserve heist was a February 2016 cyberattack in which hackers attempted to steal nearly $1 billion from the central bank of Bangladesh’s account with the New York Fed through fraudulent instructions via the SWIFT system.
On February 4, 2016, hackers stole $101 million from the Bangladesh Bank’s accounts with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Of the amount, $81 million was transferred to four accounts with the RCBC in Manila and another $20 million to a bank in Sri Lanka.
However, the transfer of $20 million to Sri Lanka failed because of a spelling error by the hackers. The BB got back that amount from Sri Lanka.
Later, the BB was able to retrieve about $15 million from the amount the Philippines realised in fine from the RCBC for its negligence in duty. About $66 million could not be recovered yet.
In 2020, the BB filed a case in the New York Supreme Court against RCBC over multiple causes of action. Three of these causes of action were dismissed on 29 February 2024. In June of the same year, the New York Court of Appeals rejected RCBC’s petition to have the case heard in a different court.
Recently, a Dhaka Senior Special Judge’s Court has ordered the confiscation of $81 million related to the massive BB reserve heist case. The court’s directive targets the Philippines-based RCBC, which was implicated in the money laundering of the stolen funds.
“The court issued the order on September 18 this year to confiscate the funds held in the RCBC, over nine years after the theft,” said Chief of CID Md Sibgat Ullah at a press conference in the city recently.
He said a copy of the court order has been sent to senior officials of RCBC in the Philippines.
The Senior Special Judge’s Court in Dhaka issued the directive under Section 17(2) (7) of the Money Laundering Prevention Act, 2012, following an application by the CID, the agency.
Sibgat Ullah said investigations confirmed that RCBC officials, including then-president and CEO Lorenzo Tan, branch manager Maia Santos Deguito of RCBC’s Jupiter Branch in Makati City, along with other officials from RCBC’s head office and Jupiter Branch, were complicit in opening fictitious accounts through which the stolen funds were channeled.
Despite an official message from Bangladesh Bank instructing RCBC to stop payment, these officials proceeded to disburse the stolen funds illegally, he added.
“Courts in the Philippines have already convicted RCBC officials for their involvement, while the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (central Bank of the Philippines) imposed significant penalties on the bank. On 16 February 2016, RCBC had returned only $68,000 to Bangladesh Bank, which was its first step toward repaying the stolen funds,” he added.
He said its investigation, based on the evidence, determined that RCBC, as a corporate entity, committed money laundering in line with Section 27 of the Money Laundering Prevention Act.
Talking to BSS, Special Superintendent of Police (Media) of CID Jasim Uddin Khan said the Dhaka court gave the order and the necessary action will be taken authorities concerned to recover the money.
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