BSP, AMLC return $15M stolen from Bangladesh Bank – report

The Philippines returned $15 million of $81 million stolen from the Bangladesh Bank's account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in a cyberheist, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

 

Bangladesh central bank Deputy Governor Abu Hena Mohammad Razee Hassan told the WSJ that the cash was delivered to the Bangladesh embassy in Manila by officials from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).

 

“Our ambassador received the money and the amount will soon be transferred to our account at the New York Federal Reserve,” he added.

 

The $15 million was was recovered from casino junket operator Kam Sin “Kim” Wong, who testified in a Senate hearing that he received the funds from other Chinese junket operators as debt payment.

 

Last September, a Regional Trial Court ordered the money returned to the Bangladesh central bank, which the AMLC promised to do before 2016 ended.

 

Meanwhile, according to the WSJ, the balance of the $81 million had "disappeared into Manila’s murky casino industry and investigators say there is little chance of tracing it." — DVM, GMA News