Cyber heist: Philippines court dismisses RCBC case against Bangladesh Bank
In February 2016, hackers broke into the Bangladesh Bank’s account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and stole over $81 million
A court in the Philippines has dismissed a defamation case filed by the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) against the Bangladesh Bank for linking the former's name to the biggest cyber heist in the world.
Bangladesh Bank Spokesperson and Executive Director Md Serajul Islam said the Philippines court dismissed the case after holding a hearing on 30 June and the central bank received documents in this regard on Wednesday.
In the final judgement, the court concluded, "The Philippine court has no jurisdiction to bring Bangladesh Bank to justice. That is why the RCBC case has been dismissed."
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Serajul Islam told The Business Standard, "After the cyber hacking, we filed a lawsuit with the New York County Supreme Court against the RCBC on 2 January 2019. Later on 6 March that year, RCBC filed a defamation suit with a Philippine court against Bangladesh Bank."
"In the suit, they [RCBC] claimed that their goodwill has been tarnished internationally due to the case filed by the Bangladesh Bank. The court, however, dismissed the case," he said.
Mentioning the verdict as a plus point for Bangladesh, he added, "We will get a favour in the ongoing case that we lodged against the RCBC."
In the case filed with the US District Court, the Bangladesh Bank accused the RCBC of being involved in a massive conspiracy to steal its money. Senior RCBC officials had full control over the accounts used by hackers and they allowed the transactions despite knowing that huge amounts were transferred.
In February 2016, hackers broke into the Bangladesh Bank's account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and stole over $81 million using 35 fake SWIFT, a global communication network for banks and financial institutions, messages.
The money was wired to an RCBC branch in Manila – the capital of the Philippines, from where it disappeared into the casino industry in the Philippines.
Hackers also made an effort to transfer $20 million to a fake NGO in Sri Lanka but failed due to a wrong spelling used in the message.
