The deadline for submitting the investigation report in the Bangladesh Bank reserve theft case has been postponed once again, with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) failing to file its report on the scheduled date. The court has now fixed 14 September as the next deadline, marking the 97th postponement in the submission of the long-awaited investigation report.

The report was due to be submitted on Sunday, 9 August, before Dhaka Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sefatullah. However, as the CID did not submit the report, the court set a fresh date. The development was confirmed by Rukonuzzaman, a sub-inspector of the prosecution department.

The case concerns one of the largest cyber-enabled financial thefts involving a central bank. On 5 February 2016, hackers used fraudulent SWIFT payment instructions to transfer money from Bangladesh Bank’s account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. A total of US$81 million was successfully stolen, while other attempted transfers were blocked.

The stolen funds were subsequently routed to the Philippines, where much of the money was converted into Philippine pesos and channelled through several entities, including casinos. The incident exposed serious weaknesses in financial security and raised questions about internal controls, payment authorisation procedures and the safeguards surrounding international fund transfers.

How the money was stolen

The attackers sent a series of fraudulent payment instructions through the SWIFT messaging system, seeking to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars from Bangladesh Bank’s account. Most of the attempted transactions were stopped, but five transfers succeeded, allowing US$81 million to leave the account.

The money eventually reached the Philippines, where it was converted into local currency and moved through financial and casino-related channels. Investigators have long examined whether individuals inside Bangladesh assisted the perpetrators by providing information or facilitating access to systems and procedures.

Around a month after the theft, on 15 March 2016, Bangladesh Bank’s then joint director of the Accounts and Budgeting Department, Zubayer Bin Huda, filed a case with Motijheel Police Station in Dhaka under the Money Laundering Prevention Act. The CID was subsequently assigned responsibility for investigating the case.

Much of the stolen money remains missing

A portion of the stolen funds was eventually recovered in the Philippines. About US$15 million was recovered from the owner of a Philippine casino and later returned to Bangladesh by the Philippine government.

However, approximately US$66.4 million remains unrecovered, leaving the recovery of the missing funds and identification of those responsible among the central challenges facing investigators.

Tracing the movement of the money has been particularly complex because the funds were rapidly converted, transferred and dispersed through different channels. Investigators have also been examining how the fraudulent instructions were generated, who enabled the transactions and how the money changed hands after reaching the Philippines.

Legal action in New York

Bangladesh Bank also pursued recovery through the US legal system. In 2019, three years after the theft, it filed a lawsuit in the Manhattan Southern District Court in New York against several parties linked to the transactions, including Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation of the Philippines.

The case subsequently faced a lengthy legal battle. In April 2022, a New York court dismissed Bangladesh Bank’s lawsuit, finding that the court did not have sufficient jurisdiction to hear the case.

Bangladesh Bank later indicated that it would continue pursuing legal avenues for recovering the stolen funds through courts with appropriate jurisdiction.

Investigation still awaits a final report

The repeated postponement of the CID investigation report has become one of the most striking features of the case. Despite numerous extensions granted by the court, investigators have yet to submit the report.

The latest delay means the report has now been deferred 97 times. The next deadline is 14 September.

Nearly a decade after the theft, the absence of a final investigation report remains a significant concern. The case involves not only the loss of a substantial amount of Bangladesh’s foreign reserves but also questions about the country’s financial security, institutional safeguards and the international mechanisms used to recover stolen assets.

With a large portion of the money still unrecovered and the full legal responsibility of those involved yet to be established through the investigation, the next scheduled date will be closely watched. The key question now is whether the CID will finally submit its report on 14 September, or whether the case will face yet another delay.