CBI takes over probe in Union Bank of India hacking and transfer of $171 million

NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation has launched an investigation into the alleged swindling of US dollars 171 million (around Rs 1,200 crore) from the Union Bank of India’s Nostro accounts by hackers in July 2016.
Earlier, the case was being probed by Maharashtra police but there wasn’t much development and centre issued a notification for a CBI probe last month after receiving a consent from Maharashtra government.
The bank had found during a reconciliation exercise of the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) messages that $171 million was unaccounted for.
The money was reportedly traced to banks in Cambodia, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Australia from the Nostro account of the bank.
A Nostro account refers to an account that a bank holds in a foreign currency in another bank overseas to enable foreign trade by its clients.
The transfer was done from two banks based in New York which managed Union Bank of India's Nostro accounts.
The funds were reportedly recovered through diplomatic manoeuvres, they said.
The bank in its complaint on July 21, 2016 to the Mumbai Police had pegged the amount to be $30.01 million (Rs 201 crore) but the police which had registered an FIR on August 25, 2016 mentioned the amount to be $171 million which was about Rs 1,200 crore by the then exchange rates.
The bank had stated, “Our Bank in the ordinary course of business maintains current account in United States Dollors (Nostro Account) with CITI Bank, New York, USA. Amounts lying in the accounts are used by the banks to send various amounts payable to various beneficiaries as per the instructions of our customers, who are doing business with bank in foreign exchange”.
“On July 21, 2016, we found that our above account with CITI Bank was debited in an unauthorized manner for an amount of $30.01 million (Rs 201 crore) and credited to some unknown persons account with Bank SINOPAC in Hong Kong. Immediately we took up the matter with CITI Bank, New York and initiated the process of recovery,” the Union Bank said.
“We have tried to find out as to how and who has given such instruction to the CITI New York without our knowledge. However, we could not determine the same. We find that somebody might have unauthorisedly accessed our computer system, extracted data and ultimately misused to cheat the bank by fraudulently and dishonestly using the unique identification features,” it said.
It is suspected that the money was transferred through a hacking attempt using a malware attached in the mail which was opened by a bank employee, sources said.