The Bangladesh embassy in the Philippines is confident that the entire amount of the stolen money from the central bank’s reserve will be recovered.

But it expressed concern that inauthentic media reports may hamper the efforts of retrieving the funds.

“We are confident that the entire amount that has been laundered from Bangladesh Bank will be returned to Bangladesh after a due legal procedure,” Bangladesh ambassador to the Philippines John Gomes said in a letter to the foreign ministry early this month.

On February 4, hackers stole $101 million of Bangladesh Bank’s reserve money with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Of the amount, $20 million was laundered to Sri Lanka which has already been recovered.

Another $81 million was sent to the Philippines and a legal process is ongoing to retrieve the amount.

The letter said there is already an amount of $17.82 million that has been accounted for, and some parts of this amount have already been retrieved and some are about to be recovered soon.

There is another amount of $13-17 million lying with Philrem, a remittance firm in the Philippines, and will be returned soon, according to the letter.

RCBC Bank, where the fund ended up, has already said they would return the amount if asked by the court.

The ambassador also said all the authorities and departments in the Philippines, including the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), are positive about recovering the fund.  Even the media in the Philippines are playing a proactive role to help Bangladesh get back the money, he said.

However, the envoy said some newspapers are publishing reports in Bangladesh misquoting some dignitaries.

“They have earlier misquoted a minister as saying that the officials of Bangladesh Bank are involved in the scam,” the letter said.

“While we are doing our best to recover the money, such negative reports and comments made on the basis of mere assumptions and emotions are seriously weakening Bangladesh's position and claim over the money in the Philippines,” the letter said.

A foreign ministry official said the Philippines' authorities want to settle the issue of cyber heist as soon as possible.

The powerful Blue Ribbon Committee of the Philippines senate is holding a series of hearings on the issue. By June it will hold three more hearings and then announce a verdict in this regard.

The AMLC has already filed criminal cases against the suspects. They are also taking necessary steps to return to Bangladesh the money that has already been recovered from the suspects and kept in the Philippines central bank for safekeeping; the same will also apply to the amounts that will be recovered in future.

A finance ministry official said they are going to send a mutual legal assistance letter through the office of the attorney general to bring back the recoverable money.

Bangladesh Bank governor on May 10 held a meeting with the top executives of the New York Fed and SWIFT so that they also cooperate in recovering the money.

In the next one week, the NY Fed will take necessary steps to recover the money, the official said.