CID nears charges in BB reserve heist

News Desk :

Nationals from at least five countries were involved in the Bangladesh Bank (BB) reserve heist of February 2016, according to senior officials of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which has been leading the probe into one of the world’s largest cyber thefts.

Investigators confirmed that individuals from Sri Lanka, the Philippines, China and the United States were implicated in the crime, alongside several officials and employees of Bangladesh Bank – particularly within its Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Department. Some senior central bank officials were also linked to the operation, according to a CID officer with detailed knowledge of the case, who spoke on condition of anonymity, reports UNB.

The investigation, which has continued for nearly a decade, has reached its final stage and is expected to conclude soon with the submission of a formal charge sheet before the court. The document will include findings from the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which investigators say provides conclusive evidence of the involvement of foreign nationals. The CID has requested the FBI to officially transmit its report to Dhaka.

The heist occurred in the early hours of 5 February 2016, when hackers deployed sophisticated malware to infiltrate Bangladesh Bank’s systems. A file linked to the malicious code was knowingly opened from within the ICT Department, enabling fraudulent transfer instructions to be sent to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

While the attackers attempted to transfer nearly USD 1 billion, they successfully diverted USD 101 million. Of this, USD 81 million was channelled through the Philippines’ casino industry under laws providing limited oversight, and around USD 20 million was routed to Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan portion was quickly recovered, while the Philippines funds proved far harder to trace. To date, Bangladesh has recovered approximately USD 18 million.

The CID investigation, carried out in cooperation with the FBI, the Philippines’ National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), and the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, has relied on testimony from more than 100 witnesses and detailed forensic analysis. Evidence examined includes IP addresses, transaction trails, network logs, and malware code linked to the Dridex family.

“This case exposes not only how an international financial crime of such scale was carried out, but also how local complicity and systemic weaknesses were exploited,” said another senior CID official.

“Our aim is to prepare the charge sheet in a way that ensures the perpetrators face justice at both the domestic and international levels.”
The reserve heist remains one of the most significant cyber-enabled financial crimes in history.