Law minister ‘for sharing’ BB heist findings with Philippines: report

Bangladesh's finance minister has made clear his stance against sharing an 'internal' reserve heist report with the Philippines, but the law minister is reportedly willing to share it to expedite the return of stolen money.

“It is part of cooperation. We will give them an update of our investigation,” Law Minister Anisul Huq told Reuters.

The central bank’s probe report will not be handed over to Manila even if the authorities there wanted it, Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith had told reporters at the Secretariat on Sunday.  

"It's our internal report. It's not something to share," he said after meeting with Huq and Bangladesh Bank Governor Fazle Kabir, who were in Manila to hold talks on bringing back the millions transferred there by the hackers.   

While the authorities worried about “protecting their findings from perpetrators”, Philippines Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez “strongly recommended” Dhaka’s disclosure of the report.

Bangladesh was against disclosing its findings into one of the largest cyber heists where unknown hackers made off with $81 million from Bangladesh Bank's account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The Philippine bank Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation emerged at the centre of the heist for the four accounts, opened with bogus names, which received the stolen money transferred there with SWIFT messages.

Bangladesh has recovered $15 million or a fifth of the stolen funds, returned by Kim Wong, a Chinese-born casino junket operator.

Muhith said the Philippines seized $29 million following an order by the country's Supreme Court, which he said will be brought back “gradually after discussions”.