Bangladesh IDs 20 Cybertheft Suspects

Reuters reported on Monday (April 18) that Bangladeshi investigators have identified 20 suspects tied to cybertheft of as much as tens of millions of dollars from the nation’s central bank.

Of the 20 suspects cited, said the newswire, citing a police officer, all are foreigners, and of the 20 suspects, 12 are Philippine nationals, while the remainder are Sri Lankan.

Mohammad Shah Alam, a senior officer with the Bangladesh police who works within the criminal investigation department, offered up no other details, but Reuters said that several of the suspects identified appeared to have been among recipients of the cash lifted, rather than the hackers involved in the scheme.

As was widely reported, the hackers themselves broke into the Bangladesh Bank’s computer systems in February to steal roughly $1 billion from the bank’s account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Of that attempted theft, the vast majority was blocked, but $81 million was pilfered and routed electronically to accounts that were in the Philippines and then re-routed to casinos. Further, another $20 million was diverted to a company based in Sri Lanka. That transfer was blocked and sent back to the Fed account due to a misspelling of the Sri Lankan firm, where a “red flag” was raised at the routing bank, according to the newswire.

Alam and an unnamed official also in the same department, according to Reuters, said the Bangladeshi investigation, which is not yet complete, has submitted findings to Philippine and Sri Lankan authorities. In the latter nation, the police are also investigating the theft.

The officer also noted that there is no evidence that has been tied thus far to anyone who was inside the Bangladesh Bank operating with the hackers, and police are also investigating whether service providers were guilty of any technological negligence.