BANGLADESH’S government lashed out at the country’s central bank in a rare public split as tensions escalate after hackers stole about US$101 million from its foreign reserves.

    Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith vowed to take action against the Bangladesh Bank after it failed to inform the government immediately when the funds went missing from an account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York last month. Other transfers totaling US$850 million were blocked, according to the central bank.

    “The Bangladesh Bank has the audacity not to inform me,” Muhith told reporters in Dhaka on Sunday. “I am very unhappy about it. The handling of the matter by the Bangladesh Bank is very incompetent.”

    Subhankar Saha, a spokesman for the Bangladesh Bank, declined to comment on Muhith’s remarks when reached by phone yesterday.

    The cyber heist has rattled authorities from Bangladesh to the Philippines, where much of the stolen money ended up. Both governments are cooperating on investigations as they look to figure out how to prevent a similar theft in the future.

    The Bangladesh Bank is investigating eight officials who carry out foreign exchange transactions by rotation, according to a Finance Ministry official who asked not to be identified. Some of the officials found the central bank’s computer systems inoperative Feb. 5, a day after the theft, but didn’t immediately inform their supervisors, the official said.

    Some of the transfers were blocked because the hackers spelled the name of one of the recipients incorrectly, according to a person familiar with the investigation. The central bank said it recovered US$20 million of the stolen funds and US$81 million is outstanding.

    Saha, the central bank spokesman, said that the Bangladesh Bank has set up a forensic team led by Rakesh Asthana, chief executive officer of World Informatix, a Virginia-based cyber security company. FireEye Inc. is also involved in the investigation, the company has said.

    “We can’t disclose any finding of our investigation at this moment as the Federal Reserve Bank and the Philippines are also involved in this whole process,” Saha said.

    Muhith last week said the Fed was responsible for the missing money and planned a legal fight to retrieve the funds. A Fed spokeswoman said afterward that instructions to make the payments from the central bank’s account followed protocol and were authenticated by the SWIFT codes system. There were no signs the Fed’s systems were hacked, she said. (SD-Agencies)