IN THIS day of increasing number of superlatives, we find reported in the media one hundred million US dollars electronically stolen from the Bank of Bangladesh by hackers.
For the record, the Bank of Bangladesh is the counterpart of the country’s Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). Eighty-one million dollars of the loot found its way to a leading bank in the Philippines.
For starters, any incoming deposit equivalent to half a million pesos and more is flagged by the banking system. Notice of the amount credited reaches the branch manager. The bank management (such as its immediate area head and others higher) is notified. I am told by a few “in the know” in the financial industry that the Anti-Money Laundering authorities independently also takes notice of this transfer.
Yes, such amounts are monitored online and the bank manager should make a report after exhaustively inquiring with the account holder into the nature and source of this transfer.
From the media reports, we are made to believe that by the alleged singular act of a mere bank manager, the amounts deposited in various accounts were consolidated without the imprimatur of higher management.
Okay. The consolidation presumes the multi-million-dollar transfer from overseas was clean and not from an unlawful source. Then, the recipient bank transferred the amounts to the accounts of the favorite casinos which Rappler names as Solaire, Midas Touch and City of Dreams and in these places where enormous cash changes hands, the paper trail ends. The monies are thrown in the proverbial haystack and its accounting is lost in transition.
Our questions as in many other matters are boundless - were they simply unwitting recipients? Were they merely part of a grand design to move money to the pockets of their real benefactors? And we who are mere observers of this diabolical act of electronic thievery can only speculate in awe of scheme. Could this be no different from the truths concealed on purpose about the conduct of the Mamasapano massacre? I think so.
Just as we may never know for certainty who are senator Grace Poe’s parents are or even comprehend the depth of her sudden jurisprudential qualifications to the presidency, we might also never know the real culprits who masterminded this fiasco. They have scored an almost crime. Who in their lifetime has heard of a theft of this magnitude? And in addition, which volume in law has ever spoken of a doctrine of honest mistake for our instruction? Good faith we have heard of but an honest mistake which redefines an essential qualification to hold public office? A can of worms has been opened.
In a time when to call evil as evil is now labeled as politically incorrect, moral compasses are losing bearings. Evil has taken a new and comfortable form. That may be a hard statement but the events of our day speak for themselves.
The foxes which were once in the woods (if one cares to notice) are now wearing sheep’s clothing yet we have not noticed that the enemy is dressed just like many yet his eyes offer a different twinkle. The electronic heist which was carried out within legal boundaries of the banking system by sinister minds could have been prevented but it seems evident that some sort of legal justification was provided at the level of the bank manager’s authority. This is the new sport.
At the very least, our questions could be: could she have acted alone in consideration of some financial benefit from the schemers? On whose authority were the bank accounts opened? Or was she directed, manipulated or muscled by a superior? If yes, on whose instruction and guidance? This methodology is no longer strange. I have seen this dirty hand and this approach has always been the way of the world.
Remembering one Jim Rickards, a well known fund manager who once spoke of the dangers of the digital money being hacked, we who are petty should also ask, is digital money safe from culprits? Clearly, we should rethink the words of a wise man who said that while all things legal, they are not always profitable? Volumes are being spoken yet we choose not to hear. Our patent disregard or sheer lack of interest could mean boundless implications. We should not take most of these sitting down.
It’s time to play ball.