Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)– A high-powered Bangladesh’s delegation is scheduled to meet Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte Monday afternoon in a last-ditch bid for bringing back the entire stolen reserves.
The delegation headed by Law Minister Anisul Huq left Dhaka for Manila on Saturday night to expedite efforts with the Philippines to retrieve the entire stolen money.
During their November 28-30 Manila mission, the delegation will also meet with senior officials, including the governor of the Philippine central bank, seeking their cooperation in retrieving the remaining $65.75 million of Bangladesh’s heisted foreign-exchange reserves, according to officials.
The Filipino president earlier had promised to return the entire money stolen from the Bangladesh Bank’s reserve account with the US Federal Reserve Bank in New York.
Hackers tried to steal nearly $1.0 billion from the BB account at the Fed early February this calendar year, and succeeded in digitally burgling out $81 million into four accounts at RCBC (Rizal Commercial Banking Corp) in Manila in what is dubbed biggest such cyber heist.
The cyber fraud took place on the night of February 04, sending a total of 35 transfer orders into the US Federal Reserve Bank where the BB maintains its foreign-exchange account.
Of the 35 transfer orders placed, 30 were blocked. Four transfers to the Philippine bank for a total of $81 million went through. The rest $20 million transferred to a Sri Lankan non-government organisation was reversed because the hackers mis-spelled the name of the entity.
Nearly $20 million of the total amount of $101 million siphoned off was recovered from Sri Lanka shortly after the trans-national cyber-heist.
BBN/SSR/AD