Bangladesh Bank Reserve Heist: Probe report deferred for 46th time

A Dhaka court has asked the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to submit its probe report, in the case filed over the $101m heist from Bangladesh Bank's reserve, on February 17.

The fixing of the new date deferred the probe report submission for the 46th time.

Metropolitan Magistrate Shadbir Yeasir Ahsan Chowdhury passed the order on Wednesday after CID’s Additional Superintendent of Police Muhammad Raihanul Islam, the investigating officer of the case, failed to submit the report before the court.

On March 22, 2016, the then Metropolitan Magistrate Md Mahbubur Rahman allowed the CID to conduct forensic tests on the hard drives of three Bangladesh Bank computers.

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The three hard disks were seized from Bangladesh Bank after the heist occurred.

Hackers stole $101 million from Bangladesh Bank’s account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in February 2016. Of the stolen amount, $81 million was transferred to four accounts with RCBC in Manila and another $20 million to a bank in Sri Lanka.

But the transfer of $20 million to Sri Lanka failed due to a spelling error by the hackers. 

Later, the central bank of Bangladesh was able to retrieve only about $15 million from the Philippines.

Bangladesh Bank Deputy Director (accounts and budgeting) Zobayer Bin Huda filed a case with Motijheel police station on March 15, 2016 in this connection under the Money Laundering Act, Information and Communication Technology Act and the Penal Code.