The agency clarified that the case remains under active investigation and urged media outlets to rely only on official statements.
CID firmly states no official provided information regarding a finalized draft chargesheet.
Current Status: The landmark $101 million cyber heist case is still under active investigation.
Next Steps: A formal press briefing will be held only after the final report is submitted to the court.
DHAKA – The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police has strongly refuted recent media reports claiming that a draft chargesheet has been finalized in the historic Bangladesh Bank reserve heist case.
In an official press release issued on Friday (June 19), the agency distanced itself from the reports, clarifying that the information attributed to its department sources was completely unauthorized.
”The information published in those reports regarding a draft chargesheet, citing CID officials, was not provided to any media outlet by any CID officer,” the statement read.
The agency urged the public and the media not to treat the reported claims as the CID’s official position.
Investigation Still Underway
The CID emphasized that because the high-profile case is still under active investigation, it is not legally permissible to disclose detailed findings at this stage.
”In the interest of a fair probe, disclosing intricate details right now is not possible,” the CID stated. The agency assured that once the investigation is fully completed and the report is formally submitted to the court, the CID will provide comprehensive updates through an official press briefing.
Furthermore, the law enforcement agency requested all media organizations to rely strictly on official CID press releases or statements from its authorized spokesperson when covering the case to avoid spreading misinformation.
The Root of the Controversy
The clarification followed a wave of news reports published on Thursday (June 18). Citing anonymous CID sources, several outlets claimed that after a probe spanning a decade, investigators had finally drawn up a draft chargesheet naming 64 individuals and entities in connection with the cyber theft.
A Decade-Old Financial Scandal
The case dates back to February 2016, when hackers siphoned off $101 million from Bangladesh Bank’s reserve account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York by sending fraudulent payment instructions via the SWIFT network.
While $34.6 million was later recovered from the Philippines, the rest remains untraced. Forty days after the incident, the central bank filed a case at the Motijheel Police Station under the Money Laundering Prevention Act. The CID has been spearheading the investigation since its inception.