Dhaka: The court has set November 4 as the new date for the submission of the investigation report concerning the Bangladesh Bank reserve heist case. The report, initially due today, was postponed by Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate of Dhaka, Zakir Hossain, after the investigation agency, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), failed to submit it.
According to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, the heist, which occurred on February 5, 2016, involved the fraudulent use of a SWIFT code to transfer US$ 8.1 million from the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States to the Philippines. Authorities suspect that a local network within Bangladesh assisted the hacker group responsible for the theft of the reserve funds.
In response to the incident, Zobayer Bin Huda, Deputy Director of the Accounts and Budgeting Department of Bangladesh Bank, filed a case on March 15, 2016, at Motijheel Police Station. The charges were laid against unidentified individuals under Section 4 of the Money Laundering Prevention Act 2012 (Amendment 2015) and Sections 54 and 379 of the Information and Communication Technology Act 2006.
The case remains under investigation by the Police’s CID, which continues to probe the involvement of local networks in the heist.