The Criminal Investigation Department (CID), a specialised police unit, has found technological negligence for the incident of cyber heist of $101 million from Bangladesh Bank’s (BB) account in 2016 during their investigation into the case.
“Investigation of the case is at the final stage. During investigation, what we found was technological negligence as the BB was not technologically sound when the incident took place. That is the reality,” said CID Chief Additional IGP Mohammad Ali Mia on Monday.
He made the comment while exchanging views with the newly elected executive committee (EC) of the Bangladesh Crime Reporters Association (CRAB) at the CID headquarters in Dhaka on Monday, reports UNB.
DIG Mainul Hasan, Additional DIG Khondkar Rafiqul Islam, Md Kamrul Ahsan and other senior officers of CID, and CRAB President Kamruzzaman Khan, Vice President Shaheen Abudal Bari, General Secretary Sirajul Islam and other EC members attended the meeting.
When asked about the progress in the money laundering case from the BB reserves, the CID chief said, “We are still investigating the case, but the investigation is almost in a good position.”
Bangladesh government is also trying to bring back the stolen money. Besides, there is also a case registered at a court in New York regarding this. The judge in the New York case has already concluded the hearing, the CID chief said.
“Without the support of Interpol, we will not be able to arrest the accused,” he added. “But first, we want to bring back the fund.”
Replying to a question, the CID chief said: “Although BB was not technologically sound when the forex reserve was stolen, the central bank governor recently informed us that they have already overcome the problem and there is no more technological weakness. Now they are technologically sound.”
International hackers stole $101 million from the BB account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York through fraudulent instructions against their target of about $1 billion in February 2016.
Bangladesh has so far recovered around $18 million of the $81 million transferred to the Philippines. It was later suspected that Dridex malware was used for the attack.
On March 15, 2016, Deputy Director of BB’s Accounts and Budgeting Department Zubair Bin Huda lodged a case against unidentified people under the Money Laundering Prevention Act at Motijheel Police Station.
