BB heist: Interpol team begins investigation

A team from Interpol has joined investigators in Dhaka to probe into the digital heist of Bangladesh Bank's funds at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The six-member team, led by Brad Marden – Interpol's coordinator of digital crime investigative support, arrived in Dhaka on Tuesday and started working with the Criminal Investigation Department yesterday, said CID Additional DIG Shah Alam. The Interpol team is providing the CID with technical support such as analysing materials including computers and documents that had been seized from the central bank premises, he added. The Interpol team, which consists of different nationals including officials from Interpol's Singapore office, would stay in Bangladesh and work with the CID until Friday, the CID additional deputy inspector general said. The CID is currently in charge of investigating the case that was filed by Bangladesh Bank with the Motijheel police on March 15. Meanwhile, Bangladesh Bank Executive Director Subhankar Saha has told the Dhaka Tribune that the central bank's governor, Fazle Kabir, is scheduled to visit Switzerland next week where the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, William Dudley, is also expected to come. The issue of the heist might be discussed there, Subhankar said. News agency Reuters, on the other hand, reported that the governor would also meet a senior executive from global financial messaging service SWIFT in Basel, Switzerland. Subhankar, however, could not confirm to the Dhaka Tribune whether any representative from SWIFT would be present there. On February 4, hackers stole $101 million from Bangladesh Bank’s accounts in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and transferred $81m to Philippines’ Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation, from where the money was moved to local casinos. Around $20m was recovered from Sri Lanka. After much criticism, central bank governor Atiur Rahman resigned and the government made reshuffles in key posts of the bank. Julia Bacay-Abad, director general of the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) of Philippines, has said they hoped to return $81 million to Bangladesh in three months.