Bangladesh is yet to get back $66 million of the $81 million stolen from its central bank鈥檚 New York Federal Reserve account in the world鈥檚 biggest-ever cyber heist that took place seven years ago.
However, there has been a positive development in this regard, experts said, referring to the case filed by the Bangladesh Bank with the New York Supreme Court in May 2020 accusing several individual and entities, including Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation of the Philippines, of stealing the money.
In the past month, the New York Supreme Court dismissed RCBC鈥檚 motion against the BB lawsuit and cleared the way for a much-needed legal battle that is likely to be a lengthy one, said former Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit chief Abu Hena Mohammad Razee Hassan.
鈥楽till, it is a very positive development for the country,鈥� said Razee Hassan, also a former BB deputy governor, who was involved in filing the case after hackers broke into the BB鈥檚 SWIFT platform and transferred $81 million, most of which vanished in the casino world of the Philippines amid RCBC negligence.聽
The country has so far managed to recover about $15 million following a Philippines court order while $66 million is yet to be recovered.
In April 2016, a probe report on the BB reserve heist, authored by former BB governor Farashuddin, was submitted to the government.
The central bank extended logistic support in preparing the much-talked-about report although it is yet to be made public.
BB spokesman Mezbaul Haque said that it was up to the government whether or not to make the report public.
鈥楾he Bangladesh Bank can鈥檛 do that,鈥� he said.
In 2019, finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal told the parliament that the probe report on the BB reserve heist was not made public in order to avert any influence on the ongoing investigation into the heist by the Criminal Investigation Department.
The CID has been investigating the reserve theft case filed on March 15, 2016 by the BB with the capital鈥檚 Motijheel police station against unidentified people under the Money Laundering Prevention Act.
So far, the submission of the CID probe report in the reserve heist case has been deferred for the 69th time, with the latest deferment sought by the CID and granted by the Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Dhaka on January 1.
The new submission date has been set on February 14.
CID officials said that they were in the final stage of completing the much-vaunted report.
鈥榃e are waiting for information from three countries,鈥� said CID special superintendent Md Humayun Kabir.
He, however, did not disclose the names of the countries.
According to insiders, the CID has found the involvement of 76 people from the US, India, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Japan and Sri Lanka in the heist.
It has found negligence on the part of 13 BB officials in the theft incident.
Humayun Kabir said that two CID officers were accompanying a BIFU team in Manila to witness the ongoing case proceedings in the Philippines.
The team will also discuss the negotiation process with the RCBC over the lawsuit with the New York Supreme Court as per a directive by the latter.
The team is expected to return home on Tuesday.