Taskforce formed to retrieve BB's stolen funds

The government yesterday formed a seven-member taskforce headed by the banking secretary to bring back the $81 million funds stolen from Bangladesh Bank's account with the New York Federal Reserve.

The committee has been formed as part of the efforts of the government and the BB to recover the money fraudulently channelled to the Philippines.

It will also establish communication with the countries where the stolen money was siphoned off and coordinate with various international organisations.

The members of the taskforce will be representatives of the Prime Minister's Office, Office of the Attorney General, the foreign ministry and the BB. The general manager of the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit will work as its member secretary.

A central bank official said the cyber thieves intended to make off with $1.94 billion by breaking into the BB's SWIFT servers.

Of the fake pay orders, five slipped through the New York Fed's system and were disbursed. The others were flagged by the system.

Former BB Governor Atiur Rahman, who stepped down following the mess, gave the highest importance to recovering the amount.

His successor, Fazle Kabir, after taking the reins of the central bank, reiterated the same.

The BB governor has written letters to several organisations including the governor of the Philippines central bank to bring back the stolen money.

Subhankar Saha, BB executive director and spokesperson, said they sought the assistance of the World Bank to retrieve the money and has gotten a positive response.

Meanwhile, US cyber security firm FireEye, which is probing the cyber breach, will monitor the computers at the central bank for another 720 hours to hunt the malware that it believes is still hiding in the bank's network.

It has already monitored the computers for 600 hours until April 4.