Fed to stand by BB in damage claim: Muhith

The New York Fed will stand by Bangladesh Bank in a damage claim to be filed in a New York court to recover the Bangladeshi central bank's money stolen through a cyber heist in February 2016, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said yesterday.

“The Fed will be a party to the case,” he said while replying to journalists' queries after a meeting of the cabinet committee on purchase. 

When journalists wanted to know whether a case has been filed against Manila-based Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC), Muhith said, “It has not been done yet. They (Bangladesh Bank) have engaged a lawyer to do all the necessary things.”

Earlier this month a high level government committee decided to lodge a case in a New York court by January next year. The decision came at a meeting of a taskforce formed to recover the money, chaired by the banking division secretary. The finance minister spoke about the matter afterwards.

At the time, officials of the finance ministry and Bangladesh Bank said they would decide against whom the damage claim would be filed after consulting with a New York-based law firm.

Hackers took away $81 million from the central bank's account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York using fake orders on the SWIFT payments system.

Later, the money was sent to accounts at the RCBC, from where it disappeared into the casino industry in the Philippines. So far, Bangladesh was able to retrieve $15 million from the Philippines.

As per the US law, a lawsuit related to damage claim has to be filed within three years from the occurrence of an incident, the official said. So the damage claim must be filed by February.

At the meeting of the cabinet committee, a 150-megawatt diesel-based power plant at Syedpur at a cost of Tk 568 crore got go-ahead. The job was awarded to Chinese firm Dongfang Electric International Corporation. The committee also okayed a Tk 38 crore programme for Ansar-VDP Cooperative Society Ltd to publicise 10 special initiatives of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and other development activities of the government among people at unions. 

The Ansar-VDP Cooperative Society Ltd is an appropriate body to undertake an outreach programme—Agiye Jacche Bangladesh—to remote areas as it has trained manpower at every union and village, according to an information ministry proposal.

According to the project proposal, a function, promoting the government's development activities, would be organised at schools every morning.

In the afternoon, information on special initiatives of the prime minister, as well as TVCs and films on drug abuse, child marriage and liberation war would be projected there. In April, a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council approved a Tk 60 crore project titled “Strengthening the publicity for development of rural people”.

Under the project, 65 short films would be made while 21,960 film shows, 9,792 musical programmes and 4,554 outreach programmes would be arranged. Besides, 1,470 women's rallies would be organised.

The project is set to be implemented by the Directorate of Mass Communication by November 2020.