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Muhith disappointed by RCBC's refusa to pay

Star Business Report
Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday expressed utter shock after Rizal Commercial Banking Corp of the Philippines refused to compensate Bangladesh for the $81 million heist.
Bangladesh expected a significant amount of the stolen money would be recovered and RCBC would give the rest as compensation.
"My initial reaction is that it's not ethically sound for RCBC,” he told reporters at the secretariat. It’s a strange turn of events, he said.
He said he even urged the Bangladeshi team visiting the Philippines to particularly thank RCBC for the bank's earlier assurance that it would return the money if found liable.
“I can't understand what changes had taken place in the meantime. The arguments now being presented by RCBC are
not justifiable at all because the mistake on the part of Bangladesh was taken into consideration already."
"It is a big disappointment for me because on Tuesday I told the team to thank Rizal Bank. I thanked them publicly. Now the situation has changed."
Muhith said the error on Bangladesh Bank's part was that unauthorised messages to transfer the money were sent from the BB.
RCBC on Tuesday issued a statement saying it had no liability since the BB had been negligent, and the latter should publish the result of its investigation.
Cyber criminals tried to steal about $ 1 billion from the BB in February, one of the biggest banking frauds in history. They succeeded in transferring some $81 million via an account at the New York Federal Reserve to four accounts in fake names at a branch of RCBC in Manila.
Most of the money was laundered through casinos in Manila and remains missing.
Bangladesh Ambassador to the Philippines John Gomes earlier said that the then RCBC president and CEO Lorenzo Tan said that, if found liable, the bank would voluntarily compensate Bangladesh for its losses.
"In the Senate hearing, they had informed [the public] that if RCBC was made liable, they would take it to their board to compensate [Bangladesh] with $50 million. This amount was very clearly mentioned," Gomes said in an interview with the Manila-based Inquirer.
Maia Santos-Deguito, manager of RCBC's Jupiter branch that helped withdraw the money, and her deputy Angela Torres were sacked for violations of bank policies and procedures as well as falsification of commercial documents.
The bank said that Deguito and Torres had breached the rules and facilitated the alleged laun-
dering of the BB reserves.
The scandal has led to the resignation of former RCBC chief executive Tan and Treasurer Raul Tan. RCBC, based on its internal investigation, cleared both officials of any role in the cyber theft.
An anti-money laundering body of the Philippines last week filed charges against five officials of RCBC in connection with the heist.
When asked whether the government would publish the investigation report probing the cyber heist, Muhith responded affirmatively. "We will publish it when the time is right."
The parliamentary standing committee on finance also recommended the government publish the probe report filed by former BB governor Mohammed Farashuddin in May.
Muhith said the report will only be sent to the parliamentary committee when the report is made public.
Asked whether the government would take RCBC to international court, he said: "It can't be said at the moment. We will wait and see what steps the authorities of the Philippines take against RCBC."
But the government may sue
the New York Fed as the US central bank's branch raised suspicion about the payment orders from the BB but later released the money, said Muhith. "I am not sure when the case will be filed."
Meanwhile, the government has requested the Philippine Senate to re-open the investigation on the $81-million cyberheist as it sought the government's assistance in recovering the rest of the stolen money that landed in RCBC.
Law Minister Anisul Huq, who is now leading a delegation to Manila to press for the recovery of the stolen fund, said RCBC had admitted liability when it paid a $20 million fine imposed by the central bank of the Philippines.
Huq said the RCBC statement was irrelevant. "It has got no connection with the demands we are making. It is a proven fact that RCBC had received the money in its account and they have admitted liability by paying the fine," he said.
"The money landed here. Therefore, it is quite clear that there is a great amount of involvement from persons in the Philippines.'