STOLEN RESERVE FUND RECOVERY BB wants out-of-court settlement too

Dhaka is likely to propose an out-of-court settlement, in a major policy shift, for the recovery of the rest $66 million of the country’s stolen reserve fund from Manila.
Officials, quoting a latest position paper of the Bangladesh Bank, said that finance minister AMA Muhith at a meeting with his Philippine counterpart scheduled for today would urge the Philippine government to ‘consider possibilities of an out-of-court settlement with agencies and individuals concerned.
Muhith would visit Manila first time after hackers stolen $81 million reserve fund from Bangladesh Bank account in Federal Reserve Bank of New York and laundered in casinos in Manila via Rizal Commercial Bank Corporation of the Philippines in February 2016.
The finance minister would left Dhaka Tuesday evening to attend the annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank at its headquarters in Manila.
The officials said that as Manila returned only $15 million by an order of a regional Philippine court in November 2016, the central bank was considering filing cases against Rizal Commercial Bank Corporation to recover the remaining fund.   
Financial Institution Division secretary Eunusur Rahman, also the taskforce on reserve fund recovery committee chief, declined to comment on the new proposal the central bank conveyed to Muhith ahead of the weeklong tour to Manila. 
Let the finance minister give the proposal first, he said.
Central bank officials said that by the new proposal the Bangladesh Bank would not deviate from its aim for recovering the fund as it became a prestigious issue following worldwide coverage of the unprecedented reserve heist.
Central bank deputy governor Abu Hena Mohd Razee Hassan said that they would like to exploit all means to recover the money.
He noted that legal procedure might take long time to get back money from the Philippines.
He said that the central bank had been encouraged to make such proposal as an Ecuadorian bank and Wells Fargo, according to a Reuters report in April, reached an out-of-court settlement over a 2015 cyber heist of $12 million.
He said that $51.5 million of the remaining $66 million stolen fund had been traced in accounts of different companies and individuals in Manila, including $10.7 million with Philrem Service Corporation, $29 with Solaire Casino, $1.2 million with two employees of Kim Wong, a Chinese owner of the Solaire Casino, and $6 million with Kim Wong.
According to the central bank position paper, Muhith would also urge the Philippine government to ask the authorities concerned to expedite the court process and the Rizal Commercial Bank Corporation to settle the issue with the Bangladesh Bank.
Law minister Anisul Haq who led the previous high profile delegation to Manila in late 2016 was supposed to meet with the Philippine president, but the call on was cancelled at the last minute.
In February, Ajmalul Hossain, a member of central bank legal team, said that the Bangladesh Bank, Federal Reserve Bank and global financial messaging service SWIFT would file the case against the Rizal Commercial Bank Corporation with a New York court.
The deadline for filing the case with any civil court would expire in February 2019, he said.
Rizal Commercial Bank Corporation has also warned of legal action, claiming that the cyber heist was an ‘inside job’ and that the Philippine bank was being used as a scapegoat to hide the culprits.
‘RCBC has had it and will consider a lawsuit against Bangladesh Central Bank officials for claiming the bank had a hand in the $81M cyber-heist,’ according to a statement by the Philippine bank.
The Philippine central bank imposed a record $21 million fine on Rizal Commercial Bank Corporation after the discovery of the heist as it investigated the lender’s alleged role in the theft.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net