Bangladesh Bank heist: Probe report deferred for 73rd time
About $66 million could not be recovered yet.
Bangladesh Bank has again postponed the date of submission of the investigation report in the case filed in the incident of a $101m heist from Bangladesh Bank
The court fixed 20 September as the next submission date for the report. With this, the report submission deadline has been postponed 73 times.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Rajesh Chowdhury set the date as the CID, the investigating agency, failed to submit its report to the court on Monday.
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Unidentified hackers stole $101 million from Bangladesh's central bank account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, using fake orders on the SWIFT payments system in February 2016.
Of the stolen amount, $81 million was transferred to four accounts with the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) in Manila, and another $20 million to a bank in Sri Lanka.
However, the $20 million transfer to Sri Lanka failed due to a spelling error by the hackers and the Bangladesh Bank got back that amount from Sri Lanka.
Later, the central bank of Bangladesh was able to retrieve only about another $15 million from the Philippines, realised as a fine from the RCBC for its negligence in duty.
About $66 million could not be recovered yet.
Seven years have passed since the central bank's reserve heist but the government's ongoing legal battle in US courts to recover the remaining amount has not made much progress.
Moreover, the CID has not even completed its investigation into the case filed by the Bangladesh Bank with Motijheel Police Station following the reserve theft.
The CID says their investigation is nearing completion and they will soon file a charge sheet.
An investigation committee led by former governor Dr Mohammed Farashuddin submitted its report on the heist in May 2016 but it has not been made public.
Bangladesh Bank Deputy Director (accounts and budgeting) Zobayer Bin Huda filed a case with Motijheel police station on 15 March, 2016 in this regard under the Money Laundering Act, Information and Communication Technology Act, and the Penal Code.
