Charge sheet in reserve heist case in one to two months: CID chief

The chief of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police expects to submit the charges sheet in the case filed over the Bangladesh Bank reserve heist within one or two months.

Mohammad Ali Mia, also the additional inspector general of Bangladesh Police, expressed the hope while responding to reporters after an event at CID headquarters in Dhaka on Sunday.

Hackers on February 4 in 2016 broke into the central bank's system and generated 70 fake payment orders involving $1.94 billion to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The 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 law.

On March 22, 2016, the then Metropolitan Magistrate Md Mahbubur Rahman allowed the CID, the investigation agency in the case, 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 Philippines.

So far, Bangladesh retrieved $15 million from RCBC and recovered another $20 million sent to a bank in Sri Lanka. On February 1 last year, Bangladesh Bank sued Rizal Bank in US court to recover $66m of stolen funds.