Bangladesh expects $17.75M from bank heist returned ‘very, very soon’

Bangladesh Ambassador to the Philippines John Gomes on Thursday said he expects that some $17.75 million will be returned to them soon, as part of the funds recovered from the $81 million stolen by still unknown hackers earlier this year.

“Out of the $81 million, I think $17.75 million is something that is returnable very, very soon,” Gomes said at a media roundtable discussion in Makati City on the $81-million money laundering scheme.

From the $17.75 million, Gomes said that the bulk of this or $15 million may be returned to Bangladesh as early as next month, August.

“The DOJ (Department of Justice), AMLC (Anti-money Laundering Council), they are now working on our behalf to get this money back to Bangladesh. So out of the $81 million, definitely $15 million is something that is within our reach. We expect it to be returned maybe within a month,” he said.

The $15 million was recovered from casino junket operator Kam Sin “Kim” Wong who said he accepted the funds as payment for the debt of Chinese junket operators, not knowing that these were part of money stolen from the account of the Bangladesh Bank at the US Federal Reserve Bank in New York.

The money was turned over to the AMLC in four tranches:

• P250 million on May 4;
• $4.6 million on March 31;
• P38.280 million on April 4; and
• P200 million on April 19 through his company Eastern Hawaii Leisure Co. Ltd.  

Totalling some $15 million, the funds were subjected by the AMLC to a civil forfeiture case filed before the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC). 

Under civil forfeiture, money and assets believed to have been acquired through illegal means may be confiscated by the courts. Assets that may be seized include cash, monetary instruments, parcels of land, and personal property.

According to Arnold Frane who works for the AMLC Secretariat, the forfeiture was awarded on July 7, but this has yet to be received by Bangladesh officials who will be given 15 days to file claims on the funds upon receipt of the notice.

The remaining $2.75 million expected by Bangladesh to be returned soon is currently the subject of a freeze order, given the temporary restraining order (TRO) filed by the Supreme Court (SC) against the lifting of such measure.

Unidentified hackers supposedly stole some $81 million from the account of the Bangladesh Bank at the New York Federal Reserve Bank in New York. The funds were then transferred to accounts kept at the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp.’s (RCBC) Jupiter branch in Makati.

Solaire Resort and Casino, where the funds are currently stored, said it will only return the money to authorities if there is a court order for them to do so. 

Out of the $81 million, some $17 million has still yet to be accounted for.

To address this, Gomes said that he has already asked the Senate to resume its probe and dig deeper on the matter. —KG, GMA News