$81M Stolen In Cyberhack Partly Retrieved By Bangladesh

Nine months after $81 million was stolen from Bangladesh’s central bank via its account with the New York Federal Reserve, the nation has retrieved roughly a third of that tally, or about $15.3 million.

Reuters reported that authorities in the Philippines have shifted the money to Bangladesh’s ambassador there and that the funds will be credited to the central bank’s Fed account as of today (Nov. 14). The central bank’s deputy governor, Abu Hena Mohammad Razee Hassan, told the newswire that the bank will now pursue the remainder of the funds that were stolen in February of this year.

As has been reported, that $15.3 million was ruled by a court in the Philippines to be the property of the Bangladesh bank. The funds had, in turn, been surrendered by Kim Wong, a casino owner, and also his Eastern Hawaii Leisure Company. The funds originally had been stolen by hackers using central bank credentials via SWIFT messages. That $81 million had been transferred to accounts at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., based in Manila. Much of the money had been laundered through Manila, said Reuters.