Return $15m to Bangladesh Bank

A Philippines court yesterday ordered the country's central bank to return nearly $15 million, a part of the Bangladesh Bank's stolen fund that has been recovered, to the BB.

The court ruled that the BB is the legal owner of the funds, which were wired into the island nation's banking system by unknown hackers in February this year, BB officials said.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the central bank of the Philippines, will now have to comply with the court order, according to BB officials.

The recovered money is now in the BSP vault.

“It has been proved now that Bangladesh is the legal owner of the stolen funds. The judgment will help us recover the rest of the money,” Debaprosad Debnath, general manager of the BB's Financial Intelligence Unit, told reporters at the Bank yesterday.

Hackers had originally tried to steal nearly $1 billion by placing 35 unauthorised payment orders from the BB's account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in February. They were able to transfer $81 million to four accounts at Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation in Manila.

During a Senate hearing on the cyber heist that ended in May, a casino junket operator claimed to have received $35 million of the funds but returned only $15 million, which is now with the BSP. The casino operator did not clarify what happened to the rest of the money.

Later, Bangladesh Bank had to file a petition to claim to the money, which has been established through the court order.

“We will bring back the recovered funds, after converting it in US dollar from the Philippine peso,” said BB Spokesperson Anwarul Islam.

The court order has to reach the Philippines central bank for releasing the sum. 

BB officials said they were trying to recover another $2.7 million frozen by the Philippines' casino regulator in a similar way.