DHAKA—Bangladesh’s central bank said Monday that part of almost $100 million allegedly stolen from a United States Federal Reserve account in New York last month has been recovered.
Suspected Chinese hackers stole the money from the foreign exchange account in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on Feb. 5, according to a central bank official and media reports.
But the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said it found no evidence of any breach of its systems related to an account held there by Bangladesh’s central bank.
“To date, there is no evidence of any attempt to penetrate Federal Reserve systems in connection with the payments in question, and there is no evidence that any Fed systems were compromised,” the New York Fed said in a statement.
The Bangladesh bank said the missing money was illegally transferred online to the Philippines and Sri Lanka, the central bank official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
“Part of the money hacked from Bangladesh Bank’s account in a bank in the United States has been recovered,” the bank said in a statement, without disclosing the amount found.
“Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit is in contact with the anti-money laundering authorities of the Philippines to track down and bring back rest of the money,” it added.
Various media reports claimed Chinese hackers stole S100 million from the Bangladesh Bank’s account with the New York Fed. Of the funds, $75 million was transferred to a bank in the Philippines and the rest to a Sri Lankan bank, the reporters suggested.
The central bank said the Anti-Money Laundering Council filed a case over the laundering of money and taken measures to freeze the bank accounts in question.
It said the World Bank, supported by its ‘forensic investigative team’ which is manned by a cyber expert, is also working with Bangladesh Bank to trace and recover the money.
Two Bangladesh Bank officials have already visited the Philippines and held meetings with officials of the country’s central bank—the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas—for the recovery of the money.
According to the statement, the central bank will move to court once the AMLC completes its investigation and will tap the World Bank’s Stolen Assets Recovery Initiative, if necessary, to get the money back.
The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. earlier said it had already started investigating the claim that as much as $100 million of suspicious funds were remitted to three casinos’ bank accounts, according to a statement Wednesday.
The government agency expects the casinos, which it didn’t name, to submit their comments on the allegation this week.
The gaming regulator’s comments come a day after Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Teresita Herbosa warned the country risks returning to the list of nations that aren’t doing enough to fight money laundering if laws aren’t strengthened to include sectors like casinos among institutions required to report suspicious transactions.
If that happens, Philippine transactions including overseas remittances that amounted to more than $25 billion last year would be subject to increased scrutiny.
“We already have warnings” from the Financial Action Task Force, Herbosa told reporters on Tuesday. “If the reports coming out were true, it really shows the consequences. I don’t think they have any reason now to oppose the bill that casinos should be covered.”
Herbosa is a member of the country’s Anti-Money Laundering Council, which unsuccessfully lobbied lawmakers to include casinos in a 2012 amendment that added terrorism as a predicate crime for laundering.
Casinos must stop cash transactions to prevent laundering or at least impose a cap, Herbosa said. Apart from gaming, the property sector and art collection should also be included on the list of covered institutions on money laundering, Senator Serge Osmena said in a phone interview Wednesday. The Philippine law is among the “weakest in the world,” Osmena said. –