About $81 million ended up in the Philippines and most has disappeared. Philippine authorities have accused a branch manager at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. of laundering money, a charge she has denied. Another $20 million sent to Sri Lanka was returned by Pan Asian Banking Corp. after it spotted a spelling error in the beneficiary’s name and flagged that to Bangladesh authorities.
The suspect transfers were made on Thursday, Feb. 4. Bangladesh’s central bank -- with limited staffing on the Friday-Saturday weekend -- didn’t detect the fraud until two days later, in part because of a printer error. It also received two SWIFT messages from the New York Fed dated Feb. 4 “mentioning about ‘doubtful’ Payment Instructions," according to the document.
On Feb. 6, a Saturday, Bangladesh Bank immediately contacted SWIFT about the issue and was advised to “cordon off" the local server while damage assessments were carried out, according to the document. Bank officials also called the New York Fed on a phone number that appeared on its website, but couldn’t connect with anyone, it said. Central bank officials sent four e-mails and a fax to the New York Fed to try and get them to stop payment, it said.
New Security Agreement
Two days later, when the SWIFT system was back up and running, Bangladesh Bank sent messages to stop payment on all the suspect transactions, according to the document. The New York Fed responded on Feb. 9 outlining the steps they took and setting up a conference call it said.
The New York Fed “also insisted upon a security clearance protocol to be signed to smoothen future operations" that was executed on Feb. 15, the document said. The agreement between the two banks “put in place a multi-tiered payment authentication system."
The Philippines on Tuesday filed a money laundering complaint at the Department of Justice against two more people allegedly involved in the heist. A nine-page complaint filed by the Anti-Money Laundering Council named respondents Kim Wong and Weikang Xu. Both couldn’t be reached to comment on the allegations.
Chinese National
Wong, president and general manager of Eastern Hawaii Leisure Co. Ltd., received 1 billion pesos ($21.6 million) from local remittance company Philrem Service Corp. from Feb. 10 to Feb. 11, the agency said, citing its investigation. Philrem also transferred $30.6 million to Chinese national Xu from Feb. 5 to Feb. 13, according to the complaint, citing the company’s testimony at the Senate hearing.
Eastern Hawaii couldn’t be contacted. Victor Fernandez, Wong’s lawyer, told Philippine Senate investigators on March 17 his client is in Singapore for medical treatment and will be back on the 28th to answer the charges. Xu didn’t attend two previous hearings despite receiving an invitation.