Dhaka Court Orders Forfeiture of $81 Million from RCBC
The Dhaka Court has mandated that $81 million be forfeited from the Rizal Commercial Bank Corporation (RCBC) in connection with a 2016 incident, as reported by the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) of Bangladesh Police.
At a press conference on September 21, CID Chief MD Sibgat Ullah shared that the court issued this forfeiture order the previous Thursday, marking over nine years since the theft.
A senior official from RCBC in the Philippines received a copy of the court order.
- Dhaka Court orders $81 million forfeiture from RCBC.
- This comes nine years after the robbery took place.
- The CID could not specify how long it would take to recover the funds.
- In 2016, hackers stole $110 million from a Bangladesh Bank account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, with $81 million of that going to four RCBC accounts.
- Additionally, $20 million was transferred to the Bank of Sri Lanka.
While CID officials provided this information, they couldn’t confirm how long the recovery process might take or if RCBC formally acknowledged the court order. They also mentioned that further details were limited since the investigation remains ongoing. However, there is a push for RCBC to return the funds to Bangladesh swiftly, partly to safeguard its reputation.
The court’s directive was issued under the Money Laundering Prevention Act of 2012 following a request from the CID. Evidence showed that RCBC officials, including the then-President and CEO Lorenzo Tan, participated in misleading representations involving the stolen funds. Despite an order from the Bangladesh Bank to halt payments, those officials allegedly continued to manage the hijacked funds unlawfully.
The CID highlighted that a Philippine court had already found ties to RCBC officials, leading to penalties imposed by the Banco Central Ng Pilipinas (Philippine Central Bank). In the aftermath, RCBC repaid a portion of the funds to the Bangladesh Bank.
Furthermore, the investigation established that RCBC, as an organization, engaged in money laundering, violating the prevention act. The court stated that the entire $81 million seized from RCBC should be returned to Bangladesh’s Ministry of Finance.
A quick recap on the context: In February 2016, hackers siphoned off $101 million from the Bangladesh Bank’s account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Of this sum, $81 million was redirected to four accounts at RCBC in Manila, while $20 million was transferred to various banks in Sri Lanka. It is suspected a group of hackers facilitated this through local constituents.
M Jubayer Bin Huda, the then-deputy director of the Central Bank Accounts and Budget Office, initiated legal action in March 2016 under the Anti-Money Laundering Act against unidentified individuals, prompting the CID’s investigation. However, progress has been sluggish, with the submission of investigative reports delayed multiple times. The CID was expected to present a report by August 26 of this year, but that did not happen. The deadline has now been rescheduled for September 29.
