Court orders seizure of $81mn from Philippines bank over 2016 Bangladesh reserve heist

A court has ordered the “seizure” of $81 million from Philippines’ Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation in connection with the 2016 hacking and theft of Bangladesh’s foreign reserves from the Federal Reserve in New York. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) announced the development in a statement on Sunday. Additional details will be provided at a press conference in the afternoon, it added. An estimated $101 million had been stolen from the Bangladesh Bank’s account at the Fed in February 2016 using 35 fake SWIFT payment instructions. Of this amount, an estimated $81 million is believed to have been transferred to the Philippines.One of these messages attempted to transfer $20 million to a “fake” non-government organisation (NGO) in Sri Lanka, but it...