The Supreme Court of New York has denied a motion filed by the Philippines’ Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) to dismiss a complaint from Bangladesh Bank over US$101 million cyber heist in 2016.
According to a disclosure by RCBC, a decision handed down by the Supreme Court denied its motion to dismiss the case, which was first filed by Bangladesh Bank in May 2022, on jurisdictional grounds.
However, it noted that while the court had confirmed its jurisdiction over RCBC, it did not rule on the merit of the case itself but merely determined that New York is a convenient forum to try the case.
“The Decision and Order merely resolved the jurisdictional issues and is not in any way, a finding of liability on the part of RCBC or any of the individual defendants,” it said.
RCBC also stated that both parties had been directed by the court to mediate their dispute.
The original 2016 incident saw North Korean hackers issued 35 fraudulent instructions to transfer almost US$1 billion from Bangladesh Bank’s account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The US bank blocked the majority of those but not before five transactions worth a combined US$101 million were processed.
Bangladesh Bank eventually recouped US$20 million traced to Sri Lanka, however US$81 million transferred to the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp (RCBC) in the Philippines was transacted and lost, partially through casinos, including Solaire Resort, Entertainment City, where some of the funds were used to purchase gaming chips and play in junket rooms.
The initial case filed by Bangladesh bank in 2020 named 20 individuals and organizations as defendants, including Solaire operator Bloomberry Resorts Corporation and Cagayan’s Eastern Hawaii Casino & Resort, however both Bloomberry and Eastern Hawaii were successful in having their cases dismissed on jurisdictional grounds in 2022.
An appeal by Bangladesh Bank against that decision is still pending.
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