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Saturday | November 07, 2026 | Dhaka

BB hires US lawyer

 New Nation
 Published: 12:00 AM, 24 March 2016

Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
Bangladesh Bank (BB) has hired a US lawyer for a possible lawsuit against the Federal Reserve Bank of New York after $81 million cyber theft from its account with the US bank, officials said.
 “BB has hired a US lawyer for preparing the ground to make a legitimate claim for the loss of funds against the US bank,” a senior BB official told The New Nation on Wednesday evening, asking not to be named.
He said the central bank (BB) has sought legal advice from the US lawyer on the possibility of suing the Federal Reserve Bank of New York after the sophisticated cyber attack.
An internal report issued by the BB recently said that the Federal Reserve was negligent and allowing the fake transactions to go through was a “major lapse.”
In February 4, a group of cybercriminals were able to steal $81 million funds which belonged to Bangladesh central bank hoarded in the Federal Reserve for international transactions.
The group, the identity of which is still unknown, infected the Bangladesh Bank’s computer systems with malware able to spy on financial transactions. After a few weeks of spying and learning the system, the attackers made a series of rapid transaction requests to the Federal Reserve with stolen SWIFT credentials.
 “Five out of 35 fraudulent payments were permitted, and entities in the Philippines and Sri Lanka received a portion of these stolen funds. However, the cyber attackers made a simple spelling mistake which flagged up the sixth transactions and blocked the other requests from immediately going through,” said the report.
If all the transactions would have been successful, the bank would have lost almost $1 billion, it is estimated.
The loss of the bank’s funds led the exit of the former BB Governor Dr Atiur Rahman. “We have not lost hope in recouping the losses. We are preparing the ground to make a legitimate claim for the loss of funds against the New York Fed through a legal process,” said the BB official.
Earlier, AMA Muhith said Bangladesh will pursue a legal fight to retrieve the fund stolen from its account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Muhith came up with the comment after the US Fed said its systems were not breached for the fake transactions.
“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 Fed systems were compromised,” said New York Fed spokeswoman Andrea Priest in a statement.
 “The Fed cannot deny its obligations,” he said, adding, “Nothing went wrong on the side of the BB. The problem was with the Fed that handled the account though it had denied the responsibility.
 “It can’t avoid responsibility as we kept money with them. They are responsible for it and of course we will file a case against the Fed,” he added.
The BB official further said that the New York Fed had failed to deal with the hacking with due diligence. However, it denied that its payment system had been breached.