US court dismisses Bangladesh Bank case vs. RCBC, Solaire operator

The Federal Court of New York has dismissed a case filed by Bangladesh Bank against the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) and Bloomberry Resorts Corp. for their supposed involvement in the $81-million cyber heist in 2016.

In a regulatory filing, the Yuchengco-led lender said the motion was dismissed in an Opinion and Order dated last Friday, March 20.

"The case filed by Bangladesh Bank was dismissed for failure to state a federal racketeering claim. The Court also declined to exercise jurisdiction over all the other state law claims of Bangladesh Bank," the disclosure read.

"Although RCBC believes service of the complaint and summons was not proper, RCBC appeared in the action for purposes of defending itself and bringing a motion to dismiss the complaint on two grounds: forum non conveniens (that the case belongs in the Philippines); and lack of subject matter jurisdiction (that the federal court does not have authority to hear the case)," it added.

The same was disclosed by Bloomberry Resorts Corp., which operates Solaire Resort & Casino.

"Bloom hereby discloses that the RICO claims filed by Bangladesh Bank against RCBC and certain individuals and Philippine companies including Bloomberry Resorts & Hotels Inc. in New York has been ordered dismissed," it said.

It was referring to Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) claims filed by the Bangladesh Bank last year.

To recall, Bangladesh Bank filed a complaint against RCBC and a set of individual officers in the Southern District of New York on January 31, 2019.

This comes as unidentified perpetrators stole $81 million from the account of Bangladesh Bank at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York using fraudulent orders on the SWIFT payments system.

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

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in 2016 slapped a P1-billion fine against RCBC in relation to the stolen funds.

Maia Deguito, the former branch manager of the RCBC Jupiter branch, has also been found guilty of money laundering.

Out of the total amount, only $15 million — mostly from casino junket operator Kam Sin "Kim" Wong — has since been retrieved.

For its part, RCBC last year filed before a Philippine civil court a defamation case against the Bank of Bangladesh for its supposed "baseless allegations" that officials were complicit in the cyber heist. —Jon Viktor Cabuenas/KG, GMA News