MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has given a commitment that the $81 million stolen from the account of Bangladesh Bank in New York and traced to bank accounts in Manila would be returned, the Bangladesh ambassador to the Philippines said.
"We are very hopeful that we will get the total $81 million. The reason is I got a commitment from the president himself," Ambassador John Gomes told a media briefing in Manila on Friday.
Cyber criminals succeeded in stealing $81 million from Bangladesh Bank's account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, transferring the funds to four accounts at Manila's Rizal Commercial Banking Corp, which was then laundered through the city's casinos, according to investigators.
A Bangladesh central bank team currently in Manila to hasten the recovery process has said they were close to getting back only $15 million of the money stolen in February.
"We know substantial amounts of money have been frozen by authorities over here," Bangladesh Bank lawyer Ajmalul Hossain said.
Bangladesh's finance minister might come to the Philippines to meet Duterte and seek his help in the recovery of the money, Gomes said.
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Gomes said the bank felt that RCBC should be held responsible because they did not follow a stop-payment request from the Bangladesh Bank.
Minutes before the Bangladesh officials held a briefing, the Philippine central bank said it would fine RCBC a record 1 billion pesos ($21 million) in relation to the cyber heist.
Hossain said the Bangladesh central bank would sue RCBC if it was not able to recover the entire $81 million.
Gomes also said they would sue Philrem Service Corp, a remittance company that anti-money laundering investigators said was used to transfer some of the $81 million.
"I think they have to return the money. They have the responsibility to return the money or face the consequence," Gomes said of Philrem.
A lawyer for Philrem, who speaks on behalf of the company, was not immediately available for comment.
The last Philippines Senate hearing into the heist ended in May as a new government came to power under Duterte. No date has been announced for a resumption, but Gomes said they had asked Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III to reopen the hearings.
(Reporting by Krishna Das and Neil Jerome Morales; Writing by Manolo Serapio Jr; Editing by Will Waterman)