CID: 23 foreigners behind BB heist

Officials of Criminal Investigating Department (CID) have identified some 23 foreigners who reportedly worked as field operators in the Bangladesh Bank digital heist. Shah Alam, additional deputy commissioner of CID (Organised Crime), made the disclosure while addressing a programme at Police Convention Centre in Dhaka Saturday evening. He said the 23 foreigners had collected the heist money from a casino in the Philippines and handed it over to the mastermind. “The mastermind did not take the money directly from the casino as they took help from the field operators,” said the CID official. "We are now trying to identify the mastermind," said Shah Alam, coordinator of the BB heist investigation. The hackers managed to transfer $81 million via an account at the New York Federal Reserve to four accounts in fake names at a branch of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp in the Philippines. The central bank has already recovered $15.25m from the Philippines’ anti-money laundering council and $20m from Sri Lanka, nine months after computer hackers stole $81m from the central bank’s account.