Bangladesh Bank moved for help of the United Nations, the US Fed and the Philippine authorities in an all-out bid for recovering its money stolen through a trans-national cyber heist.
The new central bank governor has sent letters to the Bangladesh permanent representative to the United Nations, the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States and the Philippine authorities for help in netting back the money, a BB official said.
Under the coordinated move, the central bank is doing everything necessary for recovering the remaining amount of US$81 million from the Philippines, BB spokesperson Shubhankar Saha told the FE Sunday.
"We're working in a coordinated way so as to recover the stolen money," Mr. Saha, an executive director of the BB, explained.
As part of the move, the central bank is maintaining close contact with the Ambassador of Bangladesh to the Philippines, Major-General John Gomes (Retd.) for updating about the money-recovery processes taken by the Philippine authorities concerned.
"We're getting support from the central bank of Philippines and the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) of Philippines to recover the stolen money," the BB spokesperson said.
On the other hand, the new BB governor, Fazle Kabir, asked all its general managers (GMs) and officials above for taking necessary measures to ensure foolproof IT (Information Technology) security to prevent any recurrence of such incident.
The instruction was made at an introductory meeting held at the central bank headquarters in Dhaka Sunday with Governor Fazle Kabir in the chair.
The new governor also advised the senior central bankers to work as per manual of the BB without any fear or worry, a central banker told the FE after the meeting.
He also said the GMs and executive directors of all its branch officers attended at the meet.
"Our new governor has already sent letter to the chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank's board of governors to help recover the stolen funds," the central bank spokesperson told reporters.
He said another letter was sent to Bangladesh's permanent representative to the United Nations and separate letters issued to the governor and head of the AMLC of the Philippines in this regard.
"The central bank governor has requested the Bangladesh permanent representative in the United Nations to play due role for recovering the stolen funds," Mr. Saha said about the planned UN move.
In his letter, the BB governor requested the Fed to investigate if there had been any lapses or whether it had any involvement in the heist, another BB official said.
He also said U.S. Representative Carolyn Maloney had already sent a letter to New York Fed President William Dudley with request for a private meeting with the bank staff to discuss the matter of digital fraud.
"Why did the New York Fed block the last 30 transfer orders, but not the first 5 orders? What was it about the last 30 transfer orders that raised the New York Fed's suspicions?" Maloney, a New York Democrat, raised the questions in her letter that is available on her website.
The cyber fraud took place on the night of February 4, sending a total of 35 transfer orders into the US Federal Reserve Bank in New York where the central bank of Bangladesh maintains an account.
Nearly $20 million of the $101 million siphoned off was recovered from Sri Lanka. The lion's share of the booty landed in the Philippines-and that is reported to have been splurged on gaming stakes in casinos.
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