Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- The central bank of Bangladesh hired jurist Ajmalul Hossain QC to assess the responsibility before filing a lawsuit against the Federal Reserve Bank of New York over the US$101 million digital theft from its account.
“We’re yet to take final decision about filing the lawsuit against the US Federal Reserve Bank. But we have already appointed the senior lawyer to assess legal grounds in this connection,” SK Sur Chowdhury, deputy governor of the Bangladesh Bank (BB), told BBN in Dhaka.
The deputy governor also said the lawyer will also look into alternative option for expediting the process of recovery of the stolen money from the Philippines.
Talking to BBN, another BB official said the central bank of Bangladesh has already sought cooperation from different international organisations, including the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the central bank of the Philippines and the Egmont Group, to recover its stolen money.
He also said the legal expert has also been assigned to assess the responsibility of the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) of Manila in the light of international best practices of fund transfers.
The cybercrime took place on February 5 through sending a total of 35 transfer orders into the US Federal Reserve Bank in New York, where the BB maintains its foreign-exchange-reserve account.
Nearly $20 million of the stolen money was netted back from Sri Lanka. The lion’s share of the booty landed in the Philippines, where it is reported to have been squandered through gaming in casinos.
BBN/SSR/SI