Latest: Corruption and Money Laundering.

Corruption Currents: Philippines Fines Bank in Hacking Heist.

By 

SAMUEL RUBENFELD

• Biography

Aug 8, 2016 6:22 pm ET
Bangladesh said the Philippine president committed to returning money linked to the hacking heist. Meanwhile, the Filipino central bank fined a bank implicated in the heist for cyber failings. (Reuters, WSJ, Reuters, Inquirer, GMA).

RCBC Manila

A ''No Cash'' sign is pictured at an ATM machine

 of Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC

) outside a supermarket in Paranaque city ,

 Metro Manila, Philippines August 2, 2016.

REUTERS/ERIK DE CASTRO

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has given a commitment that $81 million stolen by cyber criminals from the account of Bangladesh Bank in New York and funnelled through bank accounts in Manila would be returned, the Bangladesh ambassador to the Philippines said on Friday.

A Bangladesh central bank team visiting Manila to recover the money said earlier on Friday that it was close to getting back $15 million of the loot frozen by the Philippines.

Cyber criminals tried to steal nearly $1 billion from Bangladesh Bank's account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in February, and succeeded in transferring $81 million to four accounts at Manila's Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. The money was then laundered through the city's casinos, according to investigators.

Only about $18 million, including $2.7 million frozen by the Philippines' casino regulator, has been accounted for...

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