BB reserve heist
No probe report yet in 7 years with 73 dates
FE REPORT | Tuesday, 1 August 2023
A Dhaka Court on Monday deferred again date of submitting probe report in the case lodged over the Bangladesh Bank (BB) reserve heist.
The court has asked the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to submit probe report by September 20, 2023, said Md Shah Alam, General Register Officer (GRO) for Motijheel Police Station cases.
Md Shah Alam further said the CID has so far taken 73 dates to complete its probe in the case. More than seven years have been passed to probe into the case.
Metropolitan magistrate of Dhaka, Rajesh Chowdhury, passed the order after Raihan Uddin Khan, Additional Superintendent of Police and also Investigation Officer of the case, failed to submit the probe report by Monday (July 31).
Earlier on June 5, the same court fixed July 31 in 2023 to submit the probe report.
On February 4, 2016, hackers broke into the central bank's system and generated 70 fake payment orders to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York amounting to $1.94 billion.
The NY Fed's security system flagged the payment orders but only five of them fell through and $101 million was released.
On March 15, 2016, Joint Director of Accounts and Budgeting Department of Bangladesh Bank Zobayer Bin Huda filed a case with the Motijheel Police Station under the money laundering prevention act.
The CID of police is now investigating the case.
On March 22, 2016, the then Metropolitan Magistrate Md Mahbubur Rahman allowed CID to conduct forensic tests on the hard disks of three Bangladesh Bank computers. The three hard disks were seized from Bangladesh Bank, after the heist occurred.
At least $81 million was transferred to the accounts in Manila-based RCBC, from where it disappeared into the casinos of Philippines.
So far, Bangladesh retrieved $15 million from RCBC and recovered another $20 million sent to a bank in Sri Lanka. On February 1 last year, Bangladesh Bank sued Rizal Bank in US court to recover $66m of stolen funds.
bikashju@gmail.com