Bangladesh Bank’s followed steps after the Biggest Heist

And its attempts at retrieval of money

On 4 February 2016, when hackers stole $101 million from the Bangladesh Bank’s
accounts with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Bangladesh Bank officials
had no idea that the heist was happening. On 6 February, after knowing about such
unknown transactions, the Bangladesh bank officials panicked and then faxed,
phoned and emailed the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. But it was Saturday,
the weekend in the US, and there was no one to respond.

On February 16, the Governor of Bangladesh Bank requested the central Bank of
Philippines’ assistance in the recovery of its $81 million funds. The Bank
requested saying that the SWIFT payment instructions which was issued in favor
of RCBC on February 4, 2016, were fraudulent.

Hackers managed to transfer $81 million. Most of the bank transfers requested that
the money be sent to the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) Bank,
which was located in Manila, the capital city of the Philippines. The bank was
located on Jupiter Street. The name of the street saved Bangladesh because Jupiter
was the exact name of a US sanctioned Iranian shipping vessel. This clue helped a
lot. This made the Bangladesh Bank officials doubtful and after having cleared
four transfer requests to Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) Bank
equal to $81 million, the remaining transfers were identified and blocked.

Bangladesh Bank had realized hours after the money was stolen that biggest
money heist had happened and started taking steps to retrieve it as soon as
possible. That process was very challenging for the Bangladesh Bank.

Bangladesh Bank sent a team of officials to the Philippines for the recovery of the
stolen $81. The stolen $81 million money vanished on the casino market in the
Philippines in the middle of the negligence of Rizal Commercial Banking
Corporation officials concerned. Even before the BBC investigation, by 2019,
investigation agencies had confirmed that stolen money was extracted from the
Manila Bank, after that the money vanished into the casino industry within the
Philippines. Hackers used the complex process of money laundering to shatter the
chain of traceability, for which hackers had chosen Manila’s casino.

Bangladesh Bank officials managed to trace the money to Manila’s casino. The
Bangladesh Bank was able to retrieve about $15 million from the amount of the
Philippines realized in a fine from the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation
(RCBC) Bank for its negligence in duty. About $66 million could not be
recovered yet. The remaining money was still disappearing quickly. Investigators
found that most of the money was sent to Macau, another gambling spot. From
Macau, the money was again transferred to North Korea.

Another money transfer was to Sri Lanka. However, the transfer of that $20
million to Sri Lanka failed because of a spelling error by the hackers. The
Bangladesh Bank retrieved the money from Sri Lanka as well.

Bangladesh Bank has filed a law suit in New York Federal court in an attempt to
recover $81 million. The New York Federal Reserve is supporting the lawsuit,
including providing further assistance.

Bangladesh bank transferred to the Criminal Investigation Department for further

investigation. The CID has yet to submit its investigation report to the court.

A high powered committee headed by former BB governor Muhammad

Farasuddin was formed to investigate the cyber hacking on March 15, 2016 , forty
days after the biggest money heist took place. The committee submitted its reports
to the then finance minister. The country’s initial attempts in recovering the stolen
money through filling a case with the US district Court have not yielded any result.

After the first case was filed in 2019 almost three years after the incident,
Bangladesh’s financial intelligence unit, also known as the BFIU, filed a second
case with New York State Court against 17 Philippine entities, including Rizal
Commercial Banking Corporation and Bloomberry Resorts and Hotels Inc, a
subsidiary of Bloomberry Resorts Corporation.

The report published by the central Bank for recovering the money stolen says that
on the process of recovering the heisted money an agreement named ‘Resolution
and Assistance Agreement’ was signed between the Bangladesh Bank and The
Federal Reserve Bank of New York on 29 January, 2019.

The New York Fed is providing technical assistance to Bangladesh Bank as part of
a resolution and assistance agreement.

"This agreement demonstrates that the New York Fed and Bangladesh Bank are
aligned in the pursuit of recovering the funds and directing litigation against those
who were complicit in or benefited from the fraud," the organizations say in a joint
statement. The agreement includes the Fed committing to "meeting jointly with the
relevant agencies or parties in the Philippines to strongly encourage them to assist
in the recovery of stolen funds."

The Bangladesh Bank filed a lawsuit against seven persons, 20 institutions and 25
anonymous persons and institutions at the district Court on 31 January, 2019. But,
the court dismissed the case and suggested to file a case in another court.

In 2019, Bangladesh filed a lawsuit in a US court against the Rizal Commercial

Banking Corporation over the Philippines Bank’s purported part in the biggest
money heist in the world. The Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation counter-
filed a lawsuit against the central Bank of Bangladesh for damaging its reputation
and seeking $1.9 million in damages.

Many years have passed since the Bangladesh Bank’s money heist but the
Government’s and Bangladesh Bank’s ongoing legal battle in the US court has not
made much progress. Only $15 million of the $81 million had been retrieved.
However, the Criminal Investigation Department has not yet completed any of its
investigations which were filed by the Bangladesh Bank with the Motijheel Police
Station for the biggest money heist in the world.

Bangladesh Bank is still trying to recover the remaining of its stolen reserve. It is
taking all legal actions against dozens of people and other institutions including
RCBC.