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Philippine central bank ordered to return recovered BB heist money
[Dhaka Tribune] A Philippine regional trial court has ordered the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to return to the Bangladesh central bank a recovered portion of the $81m that was stolen from the bank earlier this year, a government lawyer said on Monday.The court has declared Bangladesh as the rightful owner of the funds, totaling $15m, Ricardo Paras III, chief state counsel of the Philippines’ Department of Justice, said while reading a copy of the court’s ruling to a Rooters news hound. Unknown hackers tried to steal nearly $1bn from the Bangladesh central bank’s account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in early February, and succeeded in transferring $81m to four accounts at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp in Manila. During a Philippine Senate hearing into the heist which ended in May, a casino junket operator claimed to have received $35m of the stolen funds but only returned $15m. It is not clear what happened to the remainder of the money. Bangladesh had to file a petition staking its claim to the money before it could be turned over to them. "(The) court ordered the release of the cash now in the BSP vault in favor of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh," Paras told Rooters. Bangladesh is also seeking to recover another $2.7m frozen by the Philippines’ casino regulator. Posted by: Fred 2016-09-20 |
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