‘Govt not to publish BB heist report now’

He said yesterday that the publishing of the probe report at this moment will “upset the steps taken to recover the stolen money.” Muhith, however, had promised earlier that the probe report of reserve heist would be published by the end of this week. “We will disclose the probe report later, but now unable to tell any specific date.” Muhith said Law Minister Anisul Huq had called him from the USA on Tuesday to not publish the report and there was also a meeting with Attorney General Mahbubey Alam on the matter. “Law minister called me from Texas (US) and there was also a meeting with Attorney General who had convinced me not to make the report public,” finance minister said. He said: “Our decision not to publish the report will help us return our stolen money from Philippines. I hope almost all of the $81m can be recovered in five months.” He said the Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has already taken an initiative to return Bangladesh Bank money. “Philippines President also told our ambassador in Manila that he will visit Bangladesh after the money is recovered and sent back to Bangladesh.” A Philippines court on Monday ordered Philippines central bank to return a portion of the recovered money to Bangladesh authorities. The court also declared Bangladesh as the rightful owner of the funds, totalling $15m. Unknown hackers tried to steal nearly $1bn from the Bangladesh Bank’s account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in early February. They succeeded in transferring $81m to four accounts at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp in Manila. Earlier this week, the finance minister said the investigation report would be published on the central bank and Financial Institution Division websites on Thursday. As for the recovered money from the heist, Muhith on Tuesday said $15.2m would be returned by the Philippines “in two days”. The money, he said, would be deposited to the central bank.