RCBC must return stolen BB money: Muhith
Finance Minister AMA Muhith today said Philippines' Rizal Commercial Banking Corp (RCBC) must return the money which was stolen from Bangladesh Bank.
“The bank cannot do what it is doing. The money must be returned to its owner,” Muhith said while talking to reporters at his Secretariat office in Dhaka.
Responding to a query over the investigation report into the BB heist, the finance minister said, “It is not the right time to make the report public.”
He said that the report will not be published until problems related to bringing back the stolen money are solved.
“I don’t want anyone getting benefit from this investigation report by escaping responsibility,” he added.
In February last year, unknown hackers stole $81 million via an account at the New York Federal Reserve to four accounts in fake names at a branch of RCBC in the Philippines.
Most of the money was laundered through Philippine casinos and only about $15 million was recovered from a gaming junket operator and returned to Bangladesh.
In November 11, 2016, BB received $15.25 million, a portion of the stolen money, from the Philippines' anti-money laundering council, nine months after the hacking.
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