Investigators to visit three countries
Investigators looking into the Bangladesh Bank cyber heist will visit the Philippines, the US and Sri Lanka after analysing the information they are collecting from Bangladesh.
"We think we will have to collect information from at least four countries to complete the investigation," Mirza Abdullahel Baqui, special superintendent of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), said yesterday. "It is a transnational crime.”
Bangladesh Bank, Federal Reserve Bank in the US, Pan Asia Banking Corporation in Sri Lanka and Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation in the Philippines are all connected to heist, he told reporters at his office in the capital's Malibagh.
”Some of the investigation abroad can be done through the local police or the Interpol, but physical presence is needed in some cases.”
They would go abroad only after completing their investigation in Bangladesh, he said, adding that he was hopeful about identifying and arresting the “real culprits”.
Talking to The Daily Star later, Baqui said intelligence officers from different units of police along with cyber experts were working on the case. Experts outside the police department would be hired, if necessary, he added.
The investigators may also seek assistance from international organisations like Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering, Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to deal with the crime, he said.
A CID official preferring anonymity said they had already communicated with cyber experts in other countries.
Meanwhile, yesterday's meeting between the CID and US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was rescheduled for tomorrow.
“We will discuss our needs and what sort of assistance they [FBI] want to give us,” said CID official Baqui.
Recently, hackers stole $101 million from a BB foreign currency account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. However, $20 million were recovered later.
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