BB reserve heist: Court defers probe report submission to Feb 25
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A Dhaka Court on Sunday deferred again the date of submitting the investigation report on the case filed in connection with the stolen money from Bangladesh Bank’s account with Federal Reserve Bank of New York in February, 2016.
It has asked the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to submit the probe report by February 25, 2024 in Bangladesh Bank cyber heist case, said Md Alamgir Hossain, General Register Officer (GRO) for Motijheel Police Station cases.
Metropolitan magistrate of Dhaka, Rajesh Chowdhury, passed the order after Abdullah Al Yasin, Additional Superintendent of Police and also Investigation Officer of the case, failed to submit the probe report by Sunday (December 31).
Earlier on November 9, the same court fixed December 31 in 2023 for submitting the probe report. The CID has already passed more than seven years to probe into the case but failed to submit the probe report yet.
Md Alamgir Hossain said, the CID has taken 76 dates to complete its probe in the case filed over the heist of $101 million from Bangladesh Bank's account with Federal Reserve Bank of New York in February 2016.
On February 4, 2016, hackers broke into the central bank’s system and generated 70 fake payment orders to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York amounting to $1.94 billion.
The NY Fed’s security system flagged the payment orders but only five of them fell through and $101 million was released.
On March 15, 2016, Joint Director of Accounts and Budgeting Department of Bangladesh Bank Zobayer Bin Huda filed a case with the Motijheel Police Station under the money laundering prevention act. The Criminal Investigation Department of police is now investigating the case.
On March 22, 2016, the then Metropolitan Magistrate Md Mahbubur Rahman allowed CID to conduct forensic tests on the hard disks of three Bangladesh Bank computers. The three hard disks were seized from Bangladesh Bank, after the heist occurred.
At least $81 million was transferred to the accounts in Manila-based RCBC, from where it disappeared into the casinos of the Philippines.
So far, Bangladesh retrieved $15 million from RCBC and recovered another $20 million sent to a bank in Sri Lanka. On February 1 in 2022, Bangladesh Bank sued Rizal Bank in US court to recover $66m of stolen funds.