Probe body hints at involvement of insiders in Bangladesh Bank heist

The final probe report over the Bangladesh Bank cyber heist has hinted at the involvement of bank insiders.

The government-constituted probe body, headed by former Bangladesh bank governor Mohammed Farashuddin, submitted the report to Finance Minister AMA Muhith at his office on Monday.

Talking to journalists after receiving the report, the minister hoped that he would be able to make public the contents of the report in 15-20 days after going through it.

Speaking to journalists at the ministry, Farashuddin said the committee had shifted ‘a bit’ from its earlier assumption that no Bangladesh Bank insider was involved in the $81 million heist from its reserves in a United States bank.

“We initially thought that no one at the Bangladesh Bank was involved. That has changed a bit. Our report details what kind of involvement it is,” he said.

The probe chief said, “SWIFT is responsible too. The report contains an analysis on whether they (SWIFT) are fully responsible or not. SWIFT cannot avoid responsibility.”

He, however, said Bangladesh Bank’s ‘future problems will have to be solved’ in cooperation with SWIFT (Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication).

Neither the finance minister nor the probe body chief has disclosed who were found to be involved in the heist and what the recommendations are like.

Farashuddin said their report provided an outline on how much of the stolen funds could be recovered and how.

“We’ve provided a good optimistic picture,” he said.

SWIFT is a global provider of secure financial messaging services. Central and commercial banks around the world are its members.

In one of the world’s biggest cyber heists, hackers transferred $81 million from Bangladesh Bank account in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to several accounts in a Philippines bank on Feb 4 by sending message through SWIFT.

They also directed the US Fed Reserve to transfer another $20 million to accounts in Sri Lanka.

The money sent to Sri Lanka was recovered, but the amount wired to the Philippines is yet to be retrieved since half of it was converted to local currencies and routed to casinos. The rest of the stolen funds was smuggled out.

The matter was brought to public notice by the Filipino ' Daily Inquirer' newspaper at the end of February.

It was later found that the central bank officials knew about the matter but had kept it under wraps for a month.             

Facing harsh criticism and intense pressure for an apparent cover-up, Bangladesh Bank governor Atiur Rahman had to resign.

Several key officials at the central bank were also removed over the fiasco.

The government on Mar 15 formed a three-strong committee headed by Farashuddin to investigate the theft.

The two other members of the committee are computer science and engineering teacher at BUET M Kaykobad and the finance ministry’s Additional Secretary Gokul Chand Das.

The committee was assigned to determine how the payment instructions were sent and to whom.

It was also asked to check the central bank’s measures to stop theft, the logic behind concealing the theft and whether central bank officials related to the matter were negligent in performing their duties.

The committee was also instructed to assess the possibility of recovering the stolen funds and suggest measures to stop a recurrence of such incidents.

The panel was asked to submit an interim report within a month and the full report within 75 days.

The committee submitted the full report on the 75th day.

“It’s a very important report as its main objective is internal reforms (of the central bank). We have lacking in that and there have been lapses. The main objective is to identify them,” said Finance Minister Muhith.

He said the probe did not aim recovery of the funds.

Different steps are being taken to recover the stolen funds, he added.

Farashuddin expressed his satisfaction with the committee’s submission of the report within the deadline and said they received all sorts of cooperation from the central bank during the probe.

He said the interim report was ' bit rushed' and the final report was very different because it now has details.

The former central bank governor said it was not possible for them to determine which ‘cyber criminals’ were involved in the heist.

Bangladesh Bank Governor Fazle Kabir was present during the handing over of the report to the finance minister.