RCBC tells Bangladesh to resume its own cyber heist investigation

Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) has called on the Bangladesh Central Bank to resume its own investigation into the $81-million money laundering scheme, instead of pressing the Philippine Senate to continue its probe.

"Why don't they want to know the truth? Before they ask for help from the Philippine government, it is incumbent upon them to submit a full report to the Philippine government, detailing what happened in Bangladesh," RCBC external legal counsel Thea Daep said in an emailed statement.

"They stopped their investigation and then their ambassador here, John Gomes, started claiming it was an outside job. But their finance minister said it was an inside job," she added.

In June, the Bangladesh central bank ended its contract on the probe into the cyber heist with US cyber security firm FireEye and turned down a proposal to extend the agreement.

Daep questioned such development and recounted an incident in which a cyber crime expert assisting the police investing the matter in Dhaka went missing and returned home "very tired."

"Something is very wrong here. What is it that they do not want to know and must therefore report to the public? They just keep saying they are the victims and want to get their money back when it was their apparent negligence that started it all," she said.

"Around March, the finance minister of Bangladesh told the media he was sure it was an inside job, and the Bank of Bangladesh Governor and two deputies resigned shortly thereafter. To us, these are clear indications of guilt and negligence," she added.

In March, Atiur Rahman resigned as central bank governor. His resignation came days after the Bangladesh finance minister said the central bank did not inform him about the heist and that he learned of it only a month later when the news first appeared in the media.

Daep noted that Bangladesh Bank was found using "inferior and cheap" server auxiliaries and had no firewall. The bank also required six officials to put their handprints on a plate in proper sequence before the payment order for the $-million could be executed.

The Philippine Senate conducted seven hearings on the matter, the last on May 17.

The Senate blue ribbon committee has since changed its members as a result of the May 10 national elections.

The committee found that $81 million was stolen by still unknown hackers and funneled into four accounts at the RCBC Jupiter branch. The funds were then transferred into casinos and junket operators through remittance firm PhilRem Service Corp.

While most of the funds were traced, only $15 million was recovered and some $17 million remains unaccounted for.

Gomes said he was optimistic that the $81 million would be returned to Bangladesh though it might this may take a while.

Still, Gomes noted that some $17.75 million would be returned "very, very soon."

President Rodrigo Duterte supposedly assured the ambassador that the Philippines "... will do whatever it takes" to hasten the recovery of the stolen money.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) slapped RCBC with a record P1-billion fine, the largest penalty so far on a BSP-supervised financial institution. — Jon Viktor D. Cabuenas/VDS, GMA News