Bangladesh Bank (BB) has filed a fresh civil case against 17 Philippine entities to recover the 81 million US stolen in a 2016 cyber heist, reports philstar.com.
The case has been filed against the entities including Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation and Bloomberry Resorts and Hotels Inc, a subsidiary of Bloomberry Resorts Corporation.
Bloomberry Resorts Corporation is the company behind Solaire Resort and Casino in Manila, one of the entities through which the funds were transferred.
The charges against the companies include conversion, theft, or misappropriation and aiding and abetting such acts, conspiracy to commit fraud, trespass against chattels, and their ‘unjust enrichment’, CNN said citing Bloomberry’s disclosure.
“BRHI was informed today that the Bangladesh Bank has filed a civil complaint against RCBC and 16 other Philippine persons (including Bloomberry Resorts & Hotels Inc.) in the New York State Court. This is despite the pendency in the US Circuit Court of Appeals of the appeal of Bangladesh Bank against the dismissal of its racketeering case against the same defendants,” Bloomberry has said in a regulatory filing.
Bloomberry said the charges are baseless and that it would defend itself from the charges, calling it “baseless,” according to the philstar.com.
The Bangladesh cyber heist happened in February 2016 when unknown criminals used fraudulent orders on the Swift payments system to steal $81 million from the Bangladesh central bank account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
The money was sent to fictitious accounts at Yuchengco Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC)’s Jupiter branch in Makati City. It went to local casinos through Philrem.
The funds went to Solaire Resort and Casino and $20 million to Eastern Hawaii Casino and Resort. Solaire Resort is operated by Bloomberry.
On Jan 11 last year, a Philippines court held a former manager of a RCBC branch guilty on eight counts of money laundering, the first conviction in the cyber heist.
Just $15 million of the stolen money has been recovered from a Manila junket operator, a role that involves marketing casinos to VIPs.