RCBC facing Bangladesh Bank in US court

MANILA, Philippines — Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) has engaged the services of a top law firm in New York City to defend it in the case filed by Bangladesh Bank pertaining to the $81-million cyber heist three years ago.

In a statement, the country’s 10th largest lender in terms of assets added that the case would serve as an opportunity for RCBC to clear its name in the heist where hackers broke into the security system of Bangladesh Bank.

“This complaint is an opportunity for RCBC to put on record again that it was a victim of what started in Bangladesh by still unnamed persons, given the refusal of Bangladesh Bank to release its full and complete findings three years after the fact,” RCBC said.

RCBC added that it had provided the Senate all the information allowed by law. 

“We hope Bangladesh Bank can be as transparent and stop blaming everybody but itself. The complaint will allow us to finally get the information we, and the Philippine government, have been asking Bangladesh Bank to provide,” RCBC said.

Bangladesh Bank Governor Fazle Kabir announced in Dhaka that their central bank was filing a case against RCBC and all others involved in the heist and try to retrieve the stolen millions.

The Bangladesh Bank said it has sought the assistance of the US Federal Reserve in New York.

“We will show that this suit is nothing more than a political stunt by the Bangladesh Bank to try to shift blame from themselves to RCBC,” said Tai-Heng Cheng, a partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP in New York.

The lawyer added that Bangladesh Bank “(doesn’t) have the right to file here since none of the defendants are in the US.”

According to him, Bangladesh Bank should have pursued its claim three years ago and not days before the statute of limitations sets in if it was serious about recovering the money.

The legal counsel added that RCBC had nothing to do with the theft and has cooperated fully in the investigation.