The operator of Solaire Resort, Bloomberry, has won yet another round in the saga relating to the cyber theft from Bangladesh Bank in 2016, after a New York court upheld a ruling to dismiss a civil suit filed against one of Bloomberry’s subsidiaries.
A Wednesday filing by the company with the Philippine Stock Exchange indicated that the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court had upheld an April 2022 decision which granted Bloomberry Resorts and Hotels Inc’s (BRHI) ‘motion to dismiss the complaint of Bangladesh Bank against BRHI for lack of jurisdiction’.
The case dates back to the 2016 hack of the Bangladesh Bank’s account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, with hackers attempting to transfer almost $1 billion out of the account. A large part of the attempted transfers were blocked, but some $101 million made its way out, with some $20 million traced and recovered from Sri Lanka, while $81 million went to the Philippines. Only some $18 million of the money transferred to the Philippines has been recovered.
The lawsuit claimed that BRHI was guilty of ‘conversion, theft, misappropriation, aiding and abetting such actions, conspiracy, fraud, and other charges.
In April of last year, when initially granted the dismissal of the case, the company noted that it had no knowledge that the funds had been remitted and used to purchase gaming chips, which were then used to play on the gaming floor and in VIP rooms in Solaire.
“The complicity and negligence of people and companies that allowed the funds to be stolen, moved and converted before they reached BRHI were the proximate causes of the loss of Bangladesh Bank. BRHI was a victim and was not complicit in this case,” it said.
