BB seeks FBI help to recover stolen money

The central bank has sought cooperation from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to recover the money, stolen from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
The assistance was sought when two senior officials of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) met with the officials concerned of the US Embassy in Dhaka on Thursday, according to sources.
The central bank of Bangladesh will also seek cooperation from the World Bank (WB) to recover the stolen money from abroad, they added.
"Our two officials verbally sought the FBI's cooperation during today's (Thursday) meeting. An official letter will be sent to the US embassy to this effect after BB Governor Dr. Atiur Rahman will return home on March 14 from New Delhi," said a senior official.
He also said the US embassy officials responded positively to the BB's proposal.
The FBI is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States, which simultaneously serves as its prime federal law enforcement organisation.
Operating under the jurisdiction of the US Department of Justice, the FBI is concurrently a member of the US Intelligence Community and reports to both the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence.
BB Governor Dr. Rahman is now in the Indian capital for taking part in a programme, organised by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The central bank official further said the BB will also follow stolen asset-recovery process of the WB, if necessary.
The expert team comprising of experienced consultant of the WB and his forensic investigation team are investigating continuously with the help from the BB IT (information and technology) experts.
Another source, however, said the investigators are now collecting information on the cyber security system including back office under Accounts and Budgeting Department of the BB.
The expert team is now scanning the SWIFT (the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) to find out any clue about the system hacked of the central bank, he added.
He also said the BB's SWIFT network has faced trouble mainly due to its firewall up-gradation.
The SWIFT provides a network that enables financial institutions worldwide to send and receive information about financial transactions in a secure, standardised and reliable environment.
Cyber criminals have digitally stolen more than US$ 100 million from Bangladesh's foreign exchange reserves deposited with the US Federal Reserve Bank and US$ 20 million of the total amount was recovered from Sri Lanka.
On the other hand, the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) of the Philippines is interrogating six persons for their alleged involvement in a cross-border electronic fraud and laundering of $81-million Bangladesh Bank's foreign exchange account through the cracks of the Philippine financial system, the Philippines Daily Inquirer reported on Thursday.
Five of them own bank accounts in Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC), which were the same ones used by what is believed to be an international syndicate to move money-stolen by computer hackers from the US account of Bank of Bangladesh-to the local financial system. The money found its way into local casinos, the newspaper said.
Based on official documents obtained by the Inquirer, the AMLC identified Michael Francisco Cruz, Jessie Christopher Lagrosas, Alfred Santos Vergara, Enrico Teodoro Vasquez, William So Go and Kam Sin Wong (Kim Wong) as those who may be involved in the money-laundering scheme, the report said.
On March 1, the Court of Appeals (CA) ordered four banks-RCBC, East West Bank, Banco de Oro and Philippine National Bank-to freeze for the next six months the bank accounts and all related accounts of the six individuals. All bank accounts of Go's company, Centurytex Trading, were also ordered frozen.
Cruz, Lagrosas, Vergara and Vasquez opened US dollar accounts with RCBC on May 15, 2015, each putting minimum $500, said the report.
The accounts remained untouched until February 5 when a payment order supposedly made by Bank of Bangladesh (BB), the central bank of Bangladesh, with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York paved the way for the transfer of $81 million to RCBC, with the four dollar-account holders as beneficiaries, the Inquirer in its report said.
Besides, in a letter dated February 16, BB Governor Atiur Rahman sought help of Bangko Sentral Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. to recover the money, saying that the SWIFT payment order sent to RCBC was "fraudulent," according to the report.
Most of the $81 million was converted into pesos by remittance firm Philrem, the report said, adding  that the money was later transferred to the bank accounts of Weikang Xu, believed to be involved in the gaming business as a junket operator, and to Eastern Hawaii Leisure Co. Ltd. and Bloomberry (Solaire operator).
The sixth person subject to the freeze order, Kam Sin Wong, has no direct links to the group.
Since casinos are not covered by the money-laundering law in contrast to other entities obliged to report suspicious transactions, it is uncertain what happened to the $81 million that flowed into Eastern Hawaiian and Solaire.
The conventional theory is that the funds had gone out of the country, although there's no documentary evidence that the amount had been converted back into foreign exchange and remitted elsewhere, the report mentioned.
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