RCBC sues Bank of Bangladesh for defamation

Publicly listed Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) has filed before a Philippine civil court a defamation case against the Bank of Bangladesh for its supposed "baseless allegations" that officials of the local lender were complicit in the $81-million cyber heist in 2016.

Filed on March 6 before the Regional Trial Court in Makati City, RCBC claimed that its reputation was attacked by the Bangladesh Bank since in the past three years.

"It is public knowledge that Bangladesh Bank has embarked on a massive ploy and scheme to extort money from plaintiff RCBC by resorting to public defamation, harassment, and threats geared towards destroying RCBC’s good name, reputation, and image, all with the intention of getting RCBC to pay Bangladesh Bank money that RCBC does not have in its custody or possession and which it does not owe to Bangladesh Bank," RCBC said in its complaint.

The suit was served to Abu Hena Mohammad Razee Hasan, who currently serves as the Deputy Governor and the Head of the Bangladesh Bank Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) and the other members of the Bangladesh Bank delegation that arrived in the Philippines this week for meetings.

Just last month, Bangladesh said it will file a lawsuit against RCBC over its role in one of the world's biggest cyberheists.

In 2016, the Monetary Board of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) slapped a P1-billion fine against RCBC in relation to the stolen funds.

In February 2016, unidentified perpetrators stole $81 million from the Bangladesh Bank account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York using fraudulent orders on the SWIFT payments system.

The money was then coursed to fictitious accounts at the RCBC branch on Jupiter Street in Makati City and then transferred to casinos, high rollers, and a junket operator.

After two years, there is no word on who was responsible and the Bangladesh Bank has been able to retrieve only about $15 million, mostly from Manila junket operator Kam Sin "Kim" Wong. — MDM, GMA News