Bangladesh Bank is a step closer to recovering a portion of the $81 million fund stolen by hackers from its account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Julia Bacay-Abad, executive director of the Anti Money Laundering Council of the Philippines, said a lower court in Manila already granted its petition for civil forfeiture filed last May, reported the Philippine Star.

She said the forfeiture order covers the funds amounting to about $15 million turned over by casino junket operator Kim Wong to the AMLC in April and May.

Abad said the Bangladesh government should now file a third party claim so the funds currently kept at the vault of the BSP, the Filipino central bank, would finally be released.

In April, the Regional Trial Court in the National Capital Region Executive Judge Reynaldo Alhambra issued a provisional asset preservation order forbidding the respondents from transacting, withdrawing, transferring, removing, converting, concealing or disposing the assets covered by the order for a period of 20 days.

The AMLC filed the civil forfeiture case against Wong and his Eastern Hawaii Leisure Co Ltd, Centurytex Trading owned by businessman William Go, Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation and Philippine National Bank.

The order covered Wong's account with balance of 4.46 million pesos ($95,252), Eastern Hawaii's account with balance amounting to 5.74 million pesos, and the RCBC account of Go's Centurytex Trading with a balance of 19,983 pesos.

During one of the hearings at the Senate, Abad said the AMLC is still looking for around $21 million as it already accounted for about $60 million.

These included the $15 million turned over by Wong, the $28 million with Solaire Casino and the $17 million allegedly with Philrem Services Corp.

Mohammed Farashuddin, head of a three-member government body that probed the theft, also told The Daily Star earlier that at least $54 million of the stolen money could be recovered.

Both the BSP and the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee of the Southeast Asian country have completed their investigation into the $81 million bank heist. Meanwhile, Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday said the investigation report on the heist will be made public within a few days.

"I think the probe report will be made public within the next few days. I'll try to deliver a statement in this regard anytime in parliament in the ongoing session,” he said in parliament.

After the heist, the government formed a three-member investigation committee headed by Mohammed Farashuddin, a former governor of the central bank.