RCBC filed suit just to deceive Filipinos: Anisul Huq

Law Minister Anisul Huq has said the defamation suit filed by Rizal Commercial Banking Corp or RCBC against Bangladesh Bank is to deceive the people of the Philippines.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 14 March 2019, 10:08 AM
Updated : 14 March 2019, 10:08 AM

"To me, the RCBC officials’ conduct was not lawful. I think they filed the suit just to deceive the people of their own country,” he said in response to a question after a meeting with Japan's Ambassador to Bangladesh Hiroyasu Izumi at the Secretariat on Thursday.

"I am saying this because the Philippines government and Philippines Senate blamed the RCBC for hacking. It is not defamatory if Bangladesh sues them in line with the law. "

The RCBC filed the suit at a local court in the Philippines on Mar 6 over what the BB says are baseless claims of its complicity in the 2016 cyber heist of Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserves.

The BB filed a lawsuit in the US District Court in Manhattan earlier this year, accusing RCBC of involvement in a massive conspiracy to steal its money.

RCBC was fined a record 1 billion pesos ($19.17 million) by the Philippine central bank in August 2016 for its failure to prevent the movement of the stolen money through the bank.

A former treasurer of RCBC and five other workers at the branch where the cash was withdrawn face money laundering charges.

On Jan 11 this year, a Philippines court held a former manager of a RCBC branch guilty on eight counts of money laundering, the first conviction in the cyber heist.

Just $15 million of the stolen money has been recovered from a Manila junket operator, a role that involves marketing casinos to VIPs.

Bangladesh has been asking that the RCBC give back the stolen funds, but the bank has not yet showed any sign of compromise.

“Bangladesh Bank has embarked on a massive ploy and scheme to extort money from plaintiff RCBC by resorting to public defamation, harassment and threats geared towards destroying RCBC’s good name, reputation, and image,” the RCBC said in a statement on Tuesday, citing the civil court filing.