BB considers suing RCBC for heist money

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DHAKA, Dec 8, 2017 (BSS) – Bangladesh Bank (BB) is mulling over filing a lawsuit against Filipino Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC)

to recover the whole heisted money from the central bank’s account with Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

“The Philippines government is extending all sorts of legal support to Bangladesh for recovering the heisted reserve money. If we cannot retrieve the entire heisted money after a certain period, we will file a lawsuit against RCBC,” a BB senior official told BSS here today.

He said several cases are ongoing in different Philippines courts and the central bank has constantly been monitoring the development of the cases.

“The case is likely to file in the US court. But any decision is yet to be taken in this regard,” he added.

Hackers stole a total $101 million from Bangladesh’s account at the New York Fed in February last year.

Of the amount, $81 million was transferred to four accounts at RCBC in Manila and another $20 million to a bank in Sri Lanka.

But the transfer of $20 million to Sri Lanka was failed because of a spelling error by the hackers. Later, BB has been able to retrieve about $15 million from Philippines.