Despite being hit with possibly the largest banking heist in history, the top authorities of Bangladesh government have decided not to file a lawsuit against any international organisation connected with the theft.
The decision was made at a meeting between Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali and Bangladesh Bank Governor Fazle Kabir at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday, sources told the Dhaka Tribune.
Ajmalul Hossain QC, the lawyer who conducted the legal procedure of recovering the $81 million laundered from the central bank's reserve account through the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, was also present at the meeting.
Speaking to the Dhaka Tribune, Ajmalul said the Bangladesh government would be required to file any lawsuit within one year of the theft as per the agreement with SWIFT, the global financial messaging network through which the money was stolen.
“In that case, the deadline would be February 4 next year. But Bangladesh has decided not to file any lawsuit," Ajmalul said. "We have already traced and recovered $15.25million, and we aim to recover the rest of the money the same way we recovered that money."'We will get our money back'The New York Fed has admitted to executing the money transfer order that led to the heist, with an electronic trail leading to the Philippines.
“They admit that they were partly responsible for this heist, and are providing support to the government in recovering the money by putting pressure on the Philippines,” Ajmalul said. “There is no need for us to file any case against the New York Fed or any other organisation, because we will get our money back.”
According to sources, $70 million of the heist money was found to have been smuggled to the Philippines, of which $15.25 million has been recovered and will be deposited at Bangladesh Bank's account with the New York Fed by November 24. A team from Bangladesh Bank is working in Manila to complete the process, Ajmalul said.
The rest of the $70 million will be recovered from Solaire casino, money exchange house Philrem, and other organisations involved with transferring the money.
Assets of these organisations have already been frozen by the Philippine authorities and the Philippines' Department of Justice is working to get the assets forfeited in order to pay Bangladesh back, Ajmalul said.
"The money that could not be traced will be recovered from Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) of the Philippines as the money was transferred through the bank," Ajmalul said.Philippines bank hackedIn August this year, Philippine central bank Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) charged the RCBC a fine of one billion pesos ($21 million) as the bank was used by cyber criminals to pull off the heist. Earlier, some $68,000 left with the RCBC bank was sent back to the New York Fed.
A Manila court on October 30 cleared the “execution suit” outlining the procedures to send the $15.25 million to Bangladesh' Banks account with the New York Fed, Ajmal said.
The execution suit order came more than a month after Bangladesh Bank finally acquired a Philippine court order in its favour to get back the money that was forfeited and kept in the vault of the BSP.
Tuesday, July 21, 2026
