Six Lankans banned from leaving after Bangladesh bank hack

A Sri Lankan court has banned foreign travel by six people whose foundation allegedly received some of the money stolen in a $101m hacking from Bangladesh Bank’s account at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, Associated Press reported..

Colombo Chief Magistrate Gihan Pilapitiya ordered the Immigration Department chief to prevent six Sri Lankan directors of the Shalika Foundation from leaving the country after the police informed courts that the foundation had been remitted a portion of the stolen money, Lakshan Zoysa, a spokesperson for the department said.

The Directive was issued on Monday based on a police investigation of a complaint made by the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Sri Lanka’s central bank. AP, however, did not reveal the identities of the alleged perpetrators.

The police reported to the court that the foundation received $19,999,977.50 on February 4. A private bank where the foundation had an account alerted the Bangladesh Bank about the remittance and returned the money.

Police said the foundation was set up to help low-income families. The address of its office appears to be a closed-up house in Colombo, and the foundation has no other known contact information.

In addition to the stolen funds remitted to Sri Lanka, $81m was transferred to the Philippines. Bangladesh authorities have said they were considering suing the Reserve Bank over the loss of the funds.

However, the Feds said it found no evidence its own systems were compromised, and attention increasingly has focused on suspected vulnerabilities in Bangladesh bank’s cybersecurity. (Dhaka Tribune)