The Bangladesh interim government has formed a high-level committee headed by law adviser Asif Nazrul to review the reserve heist of Bangladesh Bank in 2016.
The Cabinet Division issued a notification on Wednesday forming the six-member committee and asked the committee to give recommendations within three months.
The other members of the committee include Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan, adviser for the ministries of road transport and bridges, and power, energy and mineral resources, Faiz Ahmed Tayyab, chief adviser鈥檚 special assistant for the posts, telecommunications, and information technology ministry, Ahsan H Mansur, governor of the Bangladesh Bank, Ali Ashfaq, director of the Biman Bangladesh Airlines, and Md Nazrul Huda, chairman of Rupali Bank.
The committee has been asked to review the progress of the investigation into the central bank鈥檚 reserve heist in 2016 and other steps taken by the government in this regard, determine responsibility for the incident, and make necessary recommendations to prevent its recurrence.
The Financial Institutions Division will provide secretarial support to the committee, and, if necessary, the committee can include members, according to the notification.
On February 4, 2016, $81 million of Bangladesh Bank reserve was stolen from the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States through a SWIFT code.
The transferred money was sent to three casinos in the Philippines.
Of the amount, $15 million was recovered from the owner of one of the casinos, and the Philippine government returned it to the Bangladesh government, but the remaining $66.4 million has not been found till now.
The Bangladesh Bank filed a lawsuit in the Manhattan Southern District Court of New York in 2019, hoping to recover the money. But RCBC, a bank in the Philippines, appealed to dismiss the case.
In April 2022, the New York court dismissed Bangladesh Bank鈥檚 case against RCBC, saying that the court did not have 鈥榮ufficient jurisdiction鈥� to try the case.
The central bank then said that a case was filed by it in a 鈥榡urisdictional鈥� court in New York.
On March 15, 2016, Bangladesh Bank filed a case with the Motijheel police station under the prevention of money laundering act over the incident.
The Criminal Investigation Department is conducting a probe in the case, but it has failed to make any headway till now.
On December 31, 2024, the Anti-Corruption Commission sent a letter to the CID regarding the investigation.
