Philippines cancels licence of remittance firm after BB heist

The Philippine central bank said on Wednesday it had revoked the licence of a remittance company that anti-money laundering investigators said was used to transfer some of the $81 million hackers looted from the Bangladesh central bank.

The Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) issued a complaint against Philrem Service Corporation on April 28, accusing it of creating a fog around transactions and washing the stolen funds via a web of transfers and currency conversions through Philippine bank accounts, before moving the cash through casinos in Manila and junket operators. Philrem has denied wrongdoing.

Unidentified hackers infiltrated the computers at Bangladesh Bank, the central bank, in early February and tried to transfer some $951 million from its account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

All but one of the 35 attempted transfers were to the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp in the Philippines.