BANGLADESH Ambassador John Gomes asked the government on Thursday to revive the Senate investigation of the cyber-robbery of $81 million from his country’s account with the United States Federal Reserve that was laundered in the Philippines.
“After the Senate hearing everything has turned quiet,” lamented Gomes, adding that the last hearing of the Senate probe was on May 19, days after election of President Rodrigo Duterte.
“We have a new administration, a new Senate, where do we go from here?” he asked. “How to get back money? That rightly belongs to people of Bangladesh.”
Bangladesh, through its central bank, lost $81 million after unidentified hackers illicitly transferred the funds from its account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to a Makati City branch of the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp.
Last February 9, Bangladesh lost $101 million from its account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York after hackers transferred $20 million to Sri Lanka and $81 million to a Makati City branch of the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp.
The $81 million was then broken up and subsequently transferred to the bank accounts of foreign exchange dealer Philrem Services Corp., the Solaire Casino and casino junket operator Kim Wong and other still unidentified parties.
The Anti-Money Laundering Council, which had been investigating the money laundering since February 19, said it has accounted for $60 million—including the $15 million returned by Wong, $28 million by Solaire Casino and the $17 million still in the accounts of Philrem Services Corp.—but $21 million still remains missing.
Claiming the transactions constituted money laudering, the AMLC sued for the civil forfeiture of funds deposited in the accounts of Wong and his Eastern Hawaii Eastern Hawaii Leisure Co. and Centurytex Trading owned by businessman William Go.
The Manila regional trial court hearing the suit has already granted the AMLC’s petition for civil forfeiture filed last May and is now hearing the third-party claim of the Bangladesh government.