After having stolen over $100 million of Bangladesh Bank money kept in a US bank, hackers tried to hive off another $870 million but failed.
Published : 09 Mar 2016, 11:08 PM
The Philippines’ Daily Inquirer revealed this on Wednesday, having earlier run a story on $100 million being hacked away that created shockwaves in Bangladesh.
The newspaper report says $81 million of the stolen money was parked in five accounts of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp (RCBC). The money was subsequently laundered in a casino and despatched to Hong Kong.
Chinese hackers are believed to have staged the cyber heist by breaking into the Bangladesh Bank’s systems.
The incident, the biggest case of money laundering in the Philippines, is being investigated in that country as well.
The newspaper says, quoting bank officials, that there was an order for depositing another $870 million after the initial $81 million. But that did not ultimately materialise.
But the $81 million parked earlier could not be frozen because the money had been transferred before action could be taken, said bank officials.
The newspaper had reported on Feb 29 that $100 million belonging to the Bangladesh Bank had entered the Philippines.
The Bangladesh Bank later disclosed that $81 million from the Bangladesh account of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York had been shifted to the Philippines and another $20 billion to Sri Lanka.
The money sent to Sri Lanka had been retrieved, said Bangladesh Bank spokesperson Shubhankar Saha.
But a chunk of the money sent to the Philippines had already been moved out of the banking system, he said.
The Inquirer said the Bangladesh Bank money had been transferred to the Philippines by using the Swift system.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith said on Tuesday: “The Bangladesh Bank got a message from there (Federal Reserve) that said it had received such an instruction and sought confirmation.
“They (Bangladesh Bank) told them it was false. But the transaction had been executed before the Bangladesh Bank message reached them.”
The Inquirer report, too, says the same thing.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has denied responsibility but Bangladesh maintains it cannot wash its hand of the matter.