The head of the Central Bank of Bangladesh has quit over the cyber theft of $101 million from the country’s overseas accounts.
Atiur Rahman handed in his resignation on 15 March after it was revealed that the central bank head did not inform Bangladesh’s government of the theft from Federal Reserve Bank of New York accounts between 4 and 5 February.
Hackers stole the sum by posing as Central Bank of Bangladesh officials. Almost $1 billion was reportedly earmarked for withdrawal, but the Federal Reserve put a stop to the activity due to the sheer number of transactions requested, and the fact they were being routed to private accounts.
The Federal Reserve said in a statement: “To date, there is no evidence of any attempt to penetrate Federal Reserve systems in connection with the payments in question, and there is no evidence that any Federal Reserve systems were compromised.”
“The payment instructions in question were fully authenticated by the SWIFT messaging system in accordance with standard authentication protocols. The Federal Reserve has been working with the central bank since the incident occurred, and will continue to provide assistance as appropriate.”
The Central Bank of Bangladesh has managed to recover $20 million from accounts in Sri Lanka, but the remaining $81 million was reportedly laundered through casinos in the Philippines, making it more difficult to track.
A criminal case has also been filed in Bangladesh, in a bid to track down the hackers responsible for the heist.
