BB Heist: Dhaka Wants Fined Money Back

Bangladesh wants to get US$ 20 million from the Philippines, imposed on Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) as fine in the wake of the cyber heist at Bangladesh Bank apart from seeking identities of the perpetrators involved in the stealing.

Bangladesh raised the issues at the second Foreign Office Consultation between the two countries held in the city on Tuesday, four years after it happened.

''We’re making our claim saying …you (Philippines) could at least give us that fined money... Ultimately, the fine was imposed in connection with the same issue (BB heist),'' Secretary (Asia and Pacific) Masud Bin Momen told reporters at State guesthouse Meghna after the meeting.

Dr Momen who led the Bangladesh delegation at the meeting, said they sought cooperation from the Philippines in a number of areas, including information, identities of some of the perpetrators and some financial information.

If these two issues are resolved, he said, it will be easier for Bangladesh to give a chargesheet in the case filed here. ''We had a fruitful discussion (on that front).''

Dr Momen said the Philippines assured them of providing the identities and extending cooperation in other requested areas.

Earlier, Philippines’ banking regulators imposed the single biggest monetary penalty in their country’s history, slapping RCBC with a US$21.2-million fine in the wake of the cyberheist at the Bangladesh Bank.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the central bank of the Republic of the Philippines, said the penalty represents ''the largest amount ever approved as part of its supervisory enforcement actions on a BSP-supervised financial institution.''

In August 2016, Philippine banking regulators imposed the single biggest monetary penalty on an erring financial institution in the country’s history, slapping Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) with a US$21.2-million (P1-billion) fine in the wake of the cyber heist at Bangladesh Bank.

''We wanted share of the money that was fined. But they said it was done as per the Filipino law. So, they cannot do it,'' Momen said.

On February 4, 2016, hackers broke into BB's systems and generated 70 fake payment orders for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to draw about $1.94 billion.

While the NY Fed's security system flagged the payment orders, five of them fell through and $101 million was released. Finally, $81 million was wired to RCBC's branch in Manila, while $20 million landed in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka sent back the entire sum immediately after the heist was exposed, while the Philippines sent back $14.54 million in November 2016 -- meaning $66.46 million is yet to be retrieved from the Philippines. A number of cases involving a major portion of the fund are pending with courts in the Philippines.