The Bangladesh Bank (BB) has sought mutual legal assistance (MLA) from the attorney general (AG) office to recover the recently stolen money, amounting to US$ 81 million, from the Philippines.
Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) of the central bank has already sent a letter to Office of the Attorney General, seeking its legal support, a highly placed source told the FE on Monday.
The official from AG office will act for recovering the stolen money from the Southeast Asian country, he added.
Talking to the FE, a senior official of BB said the central bank has already started taking legal steps for bringing back the money from the Philippines.
"We're now discussing with the agencies concerned, including the World Bank (WB) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), for getting all possible supports to recover the money, stolen from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York."
The FBI members met the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officials of Bangladesh Police on Sunday to discuss about working jointly to probe into the digital heist.
A two-member team of the central bank visited the Philippines in February, seeking cooperation from its central bank and Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), the BB official added.
The central banker also said the authorities concerned of the Philippines have already started functioning to recover the stolen money. Â
"Our BFIU has already signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with AMLC of the Philippines for sharing information on money laundering issue."
Meanwhile, the inquiry committee, formed earlier by the government over the heist, is likely to visit the BB headquarters today (Tuesday), according to another source. On March 15, the Bank and Financial Institutions Division (BFID) of Ministry of Finance formed a three-member committee, headed by former BB Governor Dr. Mohammed Farashuddin, to probe into the digital heist. It will submit a preliminary report in 30 days and a full report in 75 days.
The cyber fraud took place on February 4 through sending a total of 35 transfer orders to the US Federal Reserve Bank in New York, where the central bank of Bangladesh maintains an account.
Nearly $20 million of the stolen money was recovered 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. Â
siddique.islam@gmail.com
BB seeks aid from AG to recoup stolen money
Siddique Islam | Published: March 22, 2016 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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