Finance
Reserve Theft Chargesheet of the Reserve Theft case after seeing the progress of the US Federal Court
Dhaka, February 6: Five years ago, miscreants swindled USD 8.1 crore from Bangladesh Bank through fraud from the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States. The CID said it had found evidence of involvement in the case by citizens of several countries, including Sri Lanka, Japan, China and the Philippines.
The company has also prepared chargesheets against foreign nationals. However, the case is also pending in the US federal court and the CID will file a chargesheet against those involved after seeing the status of the case. The company says that if the chargesheet is issued now, it may be difficult to get the money back.
On February 4, 2016, USD 10.1 crore was stolen from the account of Bangladesh Bank kept in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (Fed). Of the money stolen through five Swift messages, USD 2 crore was returned to Sri Lanka. However, the remaining USD 8.1 crore that went to the Philippines was exchanged at several gambling tables. Of this, USD 1.5 crore was returned but no trace of the rest of the money was found.
The idea is that the hacker group has squandered the reserve money with the help of a local clique. Jobayer Bin Huda, Deputy Director, Accounts and Budgeting Department, Bangladesh Bank, became the plaintiff in the case on March 15, 2016, accusing the unidentified persons at Motijheel Police Station under Section 4 of Money Laundering Prevention Act-2012 (Amendment 2015), Section 54 of Information and Technology Act-2006 and He filed a case under section 379. The case is currently being investigated by the CID.
In this regard, CID Senior Assistant Superintendent of Police (Media) Jisanul Haque said, "There is evidence that citizens of many countries including Sri Lanka, Japan, China and the Philippines are involved in the theft of Bangladesh Bank's reserves." We have prepared chargesheets against them. However, a case is also pending in the US federal court regarding the theft of the reserve. If we file a chargesheet in this case now, it may be difficult to get the money back. So we will see the progress of the case and submit the chargesheet. Our first goal is to bring back the money that has gone abroad."
On February 1, 2019, almost three years after the theft, Bangladesh filed a case against Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) of the Philippines in a US federal court. A total of 17 individuals and organizations, including RCBC and the accused casinos in the Philippines, and three Chinese nationals were indicted in the case.
