Police have received another extension to submit the report into the Bangladesh Bank forex reserve heist.
Case investigation officer and Criminal Investigation Division (CID) Additional Superintendent Raihan Uddin requested the extension before the court of Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate AKM Mounuddin Siddique on Sunday. The deadline was then extended to Apr 18.
CID had previously received an extension on Feb 15.
Last February $81 million from Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserves was stolen from the New York Federal Reserve and much of it was transferred to the Philippines branch of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp.
Bangladesh has, so far, managed to retrieve $15 million of the stolen funds and is working to recover the rest.
In addition to the CID investigation, another probe, led by former Bangladesh Bank Governor Mohammed Farashuddin, is being conducted by the Ministry of Finance.
Though the Farashuddin committee submitted its report more than six months ago, the finance minister has repeatedly put off its publication.
The government is concerned over reports that some Bangladesh Bank officials may have been involved in the theft and that may hinder the retrieval of the remaining funds from the Philippines.
The full report will be published after the remaining funds are recovered, said Finance Minister AMA Muhith.
The minister contends the Farashuddin report cannot be released because Rizal Bank may try to use it to avoid its liability in the cyber heist and hold on to the remaining reserves.
