A high-powered committee is going to be formed soon to investigate the unprecedented Bangladesh Bank fund heist and to advise the government on what measures can be taken in this regard.
The four-member committee will be comprised of a senior IT expert, an international trade expert, former governor of Bangladesh Bank or a banker, and a lawyer.
“The finance minister will select the committee members and will set the terms of reference,” Bank and Financial Institutions Division Secretary M Aslam Alam told reporters yesterday.
“No one guilty of the crime will go unpunished,” he said, after attending a meeting at Bangladesh Bank headquarters in the capital.
Finance Ministry sources said the minister, AMA Muhith, would finalise the terms of reference shortly after consulting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. He met the prime minister at the latter’s office yesterday evening.
“It will be a high-powered body. So, I hope the incumbent governor, Atiur Rahman, and the people working in the SWIFT security system will not influence the investigation,” Aslam said.
“I have requested the four deputy governors of the central bank to call an emergency board meeting on Tuesday after the governor will return from a conference in India. The meeting will decide the next course of action,” he said.
The secretary said: “The central bank authorities submitted a detailed report on the fund hack on Thursday.
“I have identified a big security lapse in the central bank’s SWIFT security system. The bank’s IT expert failed to take appropriate measures against the system that the hackers used for laundering funds.”
Aslam said the Indian consultant team, appointed as part of the central bank strengthening project funded by the World Bank, had already examined the 4,500 computers after the bank’s SWIFT security system became corrupted on March 5.
Quoting deputy governors of Bangladesh Bank, he said the SWIFT system remained corrupted for 48 hours on March 5 and 6.
“Eight central bank officials could not access the system during those 48 hours but they did not inform the matter to the general manager of the department either,” Aslam said.
“There is no good explanation for the delay in reporting the hacking to the authorities concerned but central bank officials said they would have informed the matter after gathering all the required information.”
According to Aslam, a total of 951 million dollars were illegally transferred from Bangladesh Bank fund against 35 payment instructions.
“Five of the 35 involved the transfer of $101 million to the Philippines and Sri Lanka. Of the money, $20 million went to Sri Lanka while $81 million to the Philippines.
“The central bank has already received $19.93 million of the $20 million transferred to Sri Lanka while the remaining amount was deducted in transfer fees. Besides, only $68,000 remained in the bank account in the Philippines out of the $81 million. $850 million of the central bank now remains in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York,” he said.
Regarding the hacking of $101 million, the secretary said: “We are already in a vulnerable situation because of the hacking incident. The anti-money laundering legal system has been developed in the country but is yet to be executed.”
Bangladesh is now in the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force.
