DHAKA, March 23, 2020 (BSS) – The US District Court for the Southern District of New York has dismissed the applications filled by the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp (RCBC), Solaire Resort and Casino, Mydas Resort and Casino and others.
They filed the applications against a civil case filled by Bangladesh Bank (BB) against them for recovering the whole money heisted from the central bank’s account with Federal Reserve Bank of New York that took place in 2016, said a BB press release here today.
The court dismissed the applications of RCBC and others based on lack of subject matter jurisdiction as per the forum non conveniens doctrine.
The court order mentioned that the heist was occurred from the US Federal Reserve Bank of New York and it is doubtlessly proven that everything, including payment order through forgery, transaction of heisted money by different correspondents’ accounts and transfer of the money to other country from the accounts, was happened at New York.
The court also mentioned that Vice President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York firmly mentioned that Federal Reserve can provide technical supports to the Bangladesh Bank in the field of case under a formal agreement between the Bangladesh Bank and Federal Reserve.
At that time, Southern District Court said considering the public interest, New York is the perfect place for operating the case where a federal organisation of the district faced a cyber attack.
BB filed the case against RCBC and others with the New York court to recover the whole money heisted from the central bank’s account with Federal Reserve Bank of New York in February 2019.
Hackers stole a total US$101 million from Bangladesh’s account with the New York Fed in February 2016.
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. But the transfer of $20 million to Sri Lanka had failed because of a spelling error by the hackers.
Later, the BB was able to retrieve about $15 million from the Philippines.