Sino-Pak ghosts behind ‘cyber heist’ gossip

A fake report about a new cyber heist in Bangladesh Bank (BB) has hit news headlines in some media outlets in Bangladesh and some foreign countries. News coverage about the latest false rumour on cyber heist blames officials of the central bank of Bangladesh and aims to malign the Bangladesh government.

It may be recalled that North Korean and Chinese hackers, according to findings by US intelligence units, stole 101 million dollars from Bangladesh Bank reserves in February 2016. Out of this amount 20 million dollars were instantly returned by Sri Lanka while another 10 million dollars came back from Philippines.

Still cases over the 2016 Bangladesh Bank reserve heist are going on in courts of the United States and Philippines. Bangladesh Bank has not been yet able to recover the remaining 70 million dollars taken away by hackers at that time.

Dr. Atiur Rahman was Bangladesh Bank’s Governor during the cyber heist that took place in 2016. Dr. Atiur Rahman stepped down from the central bank’s top post following the reserve heist in 2016 though it was later on revealed through domestic and international investigations that no one from Bangladesh Bank was connected with the cyber theft.

Afterwards reports were published by different news agencies that the Philippines government fired and imprisoned Maia Santos Deguito who was an official of Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) of Philippines in connection with the money siphoned off from the central bank of Bangladesh.

However, questions were raised how money from the country’s development funds could end up in casinos of Philippines, according to Bangladesh Bank’s legal consultant Ajmalul Haque QC.

Following the reserve heist of 2016, the then Bangladesh Ambassador in Philippines John Gomez had requested all concerned to abstain from making adverse remarks but still some government high-ups of that time blamed the Bangladesh Bank officials which complicated the process of retrieving the heisted money from Philippines.

After Dr. Atiur Rahman’s departure from Bangladesh Bank, the country’s banking and financial sectors have gone down into abysmal woes, corruption, irregularities, loan scams, money laundering and many more financial vices.

Both private and state-owned banks have been inflicted with insurmountable amounts of defaulted loans since 2016. Prominent economists have urged the financial regulators to take firm actions against financial perpetrators but the regulatory authorities have failed to do so.

Reliable sources have reported that a nexus combining ant-liberation quarters and anti-Indian communal outfits are making vicious attempts to disgrace the Bangladesh government.

The latest false news on Bangladesh Bank cyber heist has been propagated by these maligners who are backed by a flock of conspirators whose profiles show that they all are controversial figures and belong to anti-liberation platforms and ideological opponents of Awami League but unfortunately most of them are now holding high posts inside the government as well as the ruling party.

These scammers have become active in recent times while the Indian parliamentary elections are just round the corner. These fraudsters also want to impair the friendly ties between Bangladesh and India and they want Bangladesh to establish good governance following the models of China and Pakistan or the Sino-Pak alliance.

Anti-independence groups run some vile pages on social media and they have been spreading groundless, provocative and defamatory speeches and atrocious content on different social networking sites for a long time against the government.

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Acting Chairman and Begum Khaleda Zia’s son Tarique Rahman appeared on social media a number of times from London. Tarique Rahman explicitly assassinated the characters of Sheikh Kamal and Sajeeb Wazed Joy in his speeches which went viral on social media during that time.

Not only that, BNP also published a white paper on the 2016 BB cyber heist in which the government was directly blamed.

The Asian Age has come to know from sensitive sources that intelligence services have placed under scanner the people and media outlets which have circulated the report on the false cyber heist without verification.

At the same time loan scammers, propagandists and financial fraudsters who are involved in various detrimental and unlawful activities like grabbing mysterious loans and money laundering, also played a heinous role behind the spread of this fraudulent report on transfer of billions of dollars from Bangladesh Bank to a foreign country, financial sources have informed.

Cyber crimes are a threat to digital security all over the world now. Banks and different financial organizations in many countries have come under assaults from hackers in recent years. For this reason technologically efficient people should be placed in key posts to avert cyber attacks.

Bangladesh Bank’s present Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder is well-known among his colleagues and on administrative and financial turfs as a man of integrity and he has taken up some strong steps to reform banks and financial institutions but the tricks and devilry by rogues and crooks are trying to drive the BB Governor’s merger policy and other corrective measures towards failure.

Bangladesh Bank’s former Governor Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed said that the central bank must clarify immediately what actually happened. If the central bank remains silent over the false cyber theft news then mistrust, panic and suspicions may arise in the minds of the country’s people, Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed further said.

Former adviser to the caretaker government Dr. Wahid Uddin Mahmud told The Asian Age, “The first and foremost job of the regulatory authorities is to take uncompromising actions against the individuals who have ruined banks and financial sectors. Moreover, people responsible for spreading rumours to debase the government’s honour should be brought to the book too.”

World Bank’s former lead economist Dr. Zahid Hussain said that immoral activities have surged in Bangladesh both in the financial sector as well as in the political arena.

During the reign of any government, there is always a certain ring of opponents who attempt to spoil the ruling authorities’ dignity, he added. Dr. Zahid Hussain laid emphasis on the fact that Bangladesh Bank should reach out to the country’s people with a categorical statement on the latest phenomenon.

(dailyasianage.com)