BB RESERVE HEIST CASE: CID names Atiur among 64 people, entities in draft charge sheet

The Criminal Investigation Department has named 64 local and foreign people and entities, including former Bangladesh Bank governor Atiur Rahman, in its draft charge sheet in the case over the 2016 BB $101 million cyber heist.

The draft charge sheet was sent to the attorney general’s office on March 1 for its legal opinion, officials involved in the investigation confirmed to New Age on Thursday.

The list of suspects in the draft also includes former deputy governor Abul Kashem, former executive directors Shubhankar Saha and Mezbaul Hoque of the central bank.

The suspects further include former Mutual Trust Bank managing director Anis A Khan, the bank’s former general manager AFM Asaduzzman, and former deputy director Zubair Bin Hasan, according to officials involved in the investigation.

According to CID officials, Atiur Rahman is now hiding outside the country, but they could not confirm the country where he is in.

For their , former BB governor Atiur could not be reached over mobile phone as it was switched off while former BB deputy governor Abul Kashem and former MTB managing director Anis A Khan did not respond to calls.

Besides BB and other domestic officials, people and organisations in the Philippines, Sri Lanka, China, Japan, India, and North Korea have also been named as suspects in the cyber heist from the BB foreign reserves in the draft charge sheet.

Former BB IT adviser Rakesh Astana was named in the draft charge sheet as an Indian national.

The draft charge sheet also accused North Korean state- cyber group named Lazarus Group.

‘We are seeking the attorney general’s legal opinion before submitting the charge sheet as he is the highest law officer of the country,’ said Al-Mamun, additional superintendent of police, CID Financial Crime Unit.

Mamun, also the investigation officer of the case, said that they were scrutinising records and documents, and would submit the charge sheet soon.

The interim government in March, 2025 formed a six-member high-level committee, led by law adviser Asif Nazrul, to review the 2016 Bangladesh Bank reserve heist state of affairs.

CID investigators said that sending the charge sheet to law officers was decided by the high-level committee formed by the Professor Muhammad Yunus-led interim government.

Earlier in February, the CID also received an intelligence report from the United States which said that Park Jin Hyok, a member of Lazarus Group, was behind the BB foreign exchange reserve heist.

CID Officials involved in the investigation said that following a Bangladesh request, they had received the mutual legal assistance requests (MLAR) in late December 2025 from a US intelligence agency.

That agency detected that citizens of six countries -- 35-40 from the Philippines and others from North Korea, China, Japan, Sri Lanka, and India -- were involved in the theft along with Bangladesh central bank officials.

Lazarus Group stole $101 million in an attempt at $900 million from the Bangladesh money deposited with the Federal Reserve Bank of the US.

Officials said that the hacker group had hacked some companies and organisations in different countries while the heist was their first success in hacking any country’s central bank.

They said that the hacker group had sent some fictitious emails to the Bangladesh Bank and some employees responded to these, which also made it easy to hack the central bank.

According to the US report, several BB officials from various departments, including information technology department, accounts and budgeting department, and payment system department, were detected in the reserve heist involvement.

In a recent MLAR report from a US intelligence agency, they found that $81 million was shifted to the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation in the Philippines and then transferred to various fictitious accounts and later used in the casinos namely Filrem, Eastern Hawai, Midas, and Solaire.

Referring to their forensic report, CID officials said that collaboration between local real-time gross settlement system and the international SWIFT messaging system made it easier for hackers to access the necessary systems for the heist.

Investigators also said that some pieces of evidence were destroyed as the case was filed 39 days after the incident by BB deputy director Zubair Bin Huda with the Motijheel police station against unidentified people.

The reserve heist took place between February 4 and 5, 2016 while the case was filed on March 15, 2016.

CID officials mentioned that Bangladesh recovered $34.66 million, including $20 million from Sri Lanka and $14.66 million from the Philippines.

They said that the Philippines authorities were asking Bangladesh to adjust some compensation, saying that some BB officials were involved in the heist.

In 2019, Bangladesh also filed a lawsuit with a US federal court against Philippines bank RCBC, several casinos, 17 individuals and organisations, and three Chinese nationals, accusing them of planning and carrying out the theft.