Involvement of 20 foreign nationals in Bangladesh Bank heist found, says CID

Investigators say they have found the involvement of 20 foreign nationals in the theft of $101 million from Bangladesh Bank’s account with the US Federal Reserve Bank.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police, which is in charge of the probe, told the media on Monday that the foreigners are from Sri Lanka, Philippines, China and Japan.

A CID team has recently visited Sri Lanka and Philippines for the investigations.

Additional Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Shah Alam told reporters at the CID headquarters that the names of the foreign nationals came up during their recent visit to the two countries.

Asked whether any Bangladesh nationals were involved, the CID official said ‘definitely’ there had been some negligence for the security lapse.

“Those who were negligent are now citing their lack of understanding of modern technologies. We are trying to ascertain the veracity of their claim.”

 He said that they were certain that the theft was done through cyber-hacking. “There’s no doubt about it.”

 Hackers stole $101 million from BB’s account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in early February. Of the stolen money, $81 million were wire-transferred to bank accounts in the Philippines and $20 million to Sri Lanka.