A group of hackers of the Bangladesh Bank's (BB) reserves sparked a lot of debate not only in Bangladesh but all over the world. Last week, was the fifth anniversary of the incident. But there is growing uncertainty as to whether the remaining $ 6.68 cr or taka 560 crore stolen from BB’s foreign exchange reserves will be recovered at all.
The central bank initially said it would be possible to get the full amount back in two to three years. This was the first case of theft involving such a huge amount of money through cyber-attack in Bangladesh.
Five years have elapsed since the theft of one of the world's most talked-about reserves heist but there is still no news giving hope on the recovery of the money.
In the first year of the reserve heist, not a single penny was recovered beyond the voluntary contributions of Sri Lanka and the Philippines.
Bangladesh's case is now pending in a US court as there has been no progress in recovering money from the Philippines.
Initially, the Philippines was providing extensive assistance in recovering the stolen money from the reserves, BB officials said. Different organizations of the country then filed 12 cases on behalf of the Bangladesh government.
However, after the change of government in the Philippines, recovering activities came to a halt.
Attempts to bring the stolen money back through compromise were unsuccessful. That is why Bangladesh was forced to file a case in the court of the third country United States. Law firm Kozen O'Connor first filed a lawsuit on behalf of Bangladesh in the Manhattan Southern District Court on January 31, 2019. However, in March of last year, the US court ruled that the case was not within its jurisdiction.
As a result, a new case was filed in the US State Court on May 26 of last year for refund and punishment of those involved.
The hearing in the case has not started yet. As a result, there is growing uncertainty about the continuity of the case in that court or when the case will end.
Law firms have to be paid with huge fees. Besides, various delegations are spending huge amounts of money of the state by traveling to different countries including the United States and the Philippines.
Former BB Governor Saleh Uddin Ahmed said that it is very difficult to get back the remaining money stolen from our reserve. Because, in the beginning, the activities of BB and the government were not as they should have been, he said.
“Immediately after the incident, steps could had been taken in consultation with the Central Bank of the Philippines. It was too late to contact the Philippines without doing so. Then it was seen that some people were wandering around”.
On the other hand, activities of different organizations in Bangladesh on reserve theft were different from one organization to another. In this case, there was no coordination, he also said.
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