{"id":150001,"date":"2020-09-25T05:12:23","date_gmt":"2020-09-25T12:12:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=150001"},"modified":"2022-08-08T14:16:35","modified_gmt":"2022-08-08T19:16:35","slug":"bloomberry-summoned-in-case-brought-by-bangladesh-over-cyber-heist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bloomberry-summoned-in-case-brought-by-bangladesh-over-cyber-heist\/","title":{"rendered":"Bloomberry Summoned in Case Brought by Bangladesh Bank Over $101 Million Cyber Heist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bloomberry Resorts said in a filing this week it had been summoned to the New York State Supreme Court over 2016\u2019s $101 million Bangladesh Bank heist.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Bloomberry
The Solaire Casino Resort in Entertainment City, Manila, where much of the stolen money was laundered. (Image: Bloomberry Resorts)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Philippines casino operator is among 17 entities and individuals named in a civil lawsuit filed in May by the Bangladesh Bank. It seeks to reclaim the millions of dollars allegedly stolen by North Korean hackers from an account at the New York Federal Reserve. The money was allegedly laundered through the lightly regulated Philippines casino sector, including Bloomberry\u2019s Solaire resort.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit comes after a federal case against Bloomberry, accusing it of violating anti-racketeering (RICO) laws in relation to the heist, was dismissed last March.<\/a><\/p>\n

Also named in the new lawsuit is Philippines bank RCBC and several key members of its management, who are accused of conspiring with the perpetrators of the robbery.<\/p>\n

Philrem, the Philippine foreign exchange broker that converted and moved some of the money, is also a defendant, as is Kim Wong, the Chinese Filipino owner of the Eastern Hawaii casino resort in the Cagayan economic zone in the Philippines\u2019 far north. All defendants are accused of theft, fraud, and unjust enrichment.<\/p>\n

How the Heist Went Down <\/strong><\/h2>\n

On February 4, 2016, hackers flooded the New York Fed with requests to transfer almost $1 billion from an account used by the government of Bangladesh. The thieves had previously introduced malware into the Bangladesh Bank\u2019s servers, which enabled them to use payment credentials to authorize 35 requests for transfers into accounts based in the Philippines and Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

Five of the 35 transactions were processed \u2014 amounting to around $101 million \u2014 before someone at the New York Fed smelled a rat and blocked further payments.<\/p>\n

The $20 million that turned up in Sri Lanka was quickly traced and recovered. The rest ended up in four RCBC accounts that had been opened the same day under false names.<\/p>\n

There, the money was consolidated into one account by RCBC branch manager Maia Deguito and transferred to PhilRem, which transmitted it in various tranches to bank accounts controlled by the Eastern Hawaii ($21 million), Bloomberry ($29 million), and a gambler named Weikang Xu ($31 million).<\/p>\n

Wong at Eastern Hawaii said he had been told to expect the payment of $21 million from two high-rolling junket agents, Gao Shuhua and Ding Zhize. He told a Philippine tribunal that the two men owed him $10 million in gambling debts. The rest of the money was converted into chips for the junketeers\u2019 high-rolling clients, he said. Wong has since repaid $15 million, while Gao and Ding have disappeared without a trace, as has Xu.<\/p>\n

\n

Gao, Ding, and Xu are also named as defendants in the new lawsuit. Each is, \u201cbased upon information and belief,\u201d a Chinese national \u201cresiding at an unknown address in China,\u201d it states.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The money that was wired to Solaire was converted into chips by the casino for Gao, Ding, and Xu, and washed clean at its high-stakes baccarat tables.<\/p>\n

Philippine authorities believe that Gao and Ding cooked up the fake RCBC bank accounts with the help of Deguito.<\/p>\n

To date, Deguito, who is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence, is the only person to have been convicted for involvement in the heist.<\/p>\n

Wider Conspiracy?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

But the lawsuit argues that others at RCBC and Philrem were in on the conspiracy, as well as Wong, who was exonerated by Philippine investigators.<\/p>\n

Liability should also extend to Solaire, it argues, which \u201callowed highly suspicious amounts of cash to enter its casino, accepted on its premises by individuals with dubious claims and false identification, and then [allowed them to] gamble away those funds while retaining for itself all of the profits from the gambling aspect of the money laundering operation.”<\/p>\n

Solaire has said it had no idea the money was stolen and claims it is also a victim in the case.<\/p>\n

Solaire Casino has also seized approximately $2 million in funds from the gamblers that were laundering the funds that it has set aside in a frozen account and failed to pay over to the Bank,\u201d continues the compliant. \u201cThese funds and any other funds in the possession of Solaire Casino, in amounts to be fully ascertained through discovery, should be returned to the Bank.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

US and UN officials believe the heist was orchestrated by a North Korean hacking team, named \u201cBeagleBoyz\u201d by the US government, which specializes in robbing banks through remote internet access.<\/p>\n

The BeagleBoyz have targeted financial institutions in India, Brazil, Indonesia, Spain, Turkey and several countries throughout Southeast Asia and Africa since 2015, and are suspected of launching the 2014 cyberattack against Sony Pictures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bloomberry Resorts said in a filing this week it had been summoned to the New York State Supreme Court over 2016\u2019s $101 million Bangladesh Bank heist. The Philippines casino operator is among 17 entities and individuals named in a civil lawsuit filed in May by the Bangladesh Bank. It seeks to reclaim the millions of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":150002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69069],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBloomberry Summoned in Case Brought by Bangladesh Over Cyber Heist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Bloomberry named in suit by Bangladesh Bank over money laundered at Solaire casino resort following New York Fed cyber heist.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bloomberry-summoned-in-case-brought-by-bangladesh-over-cyber-heist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bloomberry Summoned in Case Brought by Bangladesh Over Cyber Heist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bloomberry named in suit by Bangladesh Bank over money laundered at Solaire casino resort following New York Fed cyber heist.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bloomberry-summoned-in-case-brought-by-bangladesh-over-cyber-heist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-09-25T12:12:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-08-08T19:16:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/solaire_6.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1184\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"791\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bloomberry-summoned-in-case-brought-by-bangladesh-over-cyber-heist\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bloomberry-summoned-in-case-brought-by-bangladesh-over-cyber-heist\/\",\"name\":\"Bloomberry Summoned in Case Brought by Bangladesh Over Cyber Heist\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bloomberry-summoned-in-case-brought-by-bangladesh-over-cyber-heist\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bloomberry-summoned-in-case-brought-by-bangladesh-over-cyber-heist\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/solaire_6.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-09-25T12:12:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-08-08T19:16:35+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Bloomberry named in suit by Bangladesh Bank over money laundered at Solaire casino resort following New York Fed cyber heist.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bloomberry-summoned-in-case-brought-by-bangladesh-over-cyber-heist\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bloomberry-summoned-in-case-brought-by-bangladesh-over-cyber-heist\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bloomberry-summoned-in-case-brought-by-bangladesh-over-cyber-heist\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/solaire_6.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/solaire_6.jpg\",\"width\":1184,\"height\":791,\"caption\":\"The Solaire Casino Resort in Entertainment City, Manila, where much of the stolen money was laundered. (Image: Bloomberry Resorts)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bloomberry-summoned-in-case-brought-by-bangladesh-over-cyber-heist\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Asia Pacific Gaming\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/asia-pacific-gaming\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Bloomberry Summoned in Case Brought by Bangladesh Bank Over $101 Million Cyber Heist\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\",\"name\":\"Philip Conneller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Philip Conneller\"},\"description\":\"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Bloomberry Summoned in Case Brought by Bangladesh Over Cyber Heist","description":"Bloomberry named in suit by Bangladesh Bank over money laundered at Solaire casino resort following New York Fed cyber heist.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bloomberry-summoned-in-case-brought-by-bangladesh-over-cyber-heist\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Bloomberry Summoned in Case Brought by Bangladesh Over Cyber Heist","og_description":"Bloomberry named in suit by Bangladesh Bank over money laundered at Solaire casino resort following New York Fed cyber heist.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bloomberry-summoned-in-case-brought-by-bangladesh-over-cyber-heist\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2020-09-25T12:12:23+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-08-08T19:16:35+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1184,"height":791,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/solaire_6.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Philip Conneller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@casinoorgphilc","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Philip Conneller","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bloomberry-summoned-in-case-brought-by-bangladesh-over-cyber-heist\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bloomberry-summoned-in-case-brought-by-bangladesh-over-cyber-heist\/","name":"Bloomberry Summoned in Case Brought by Bangladesh Over Cyber Heist","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bloomberry-summoned-in-case-brought-by-bangladesh-over-cyber-heist\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bloomberry-summoned-in-case-brought-by-bangladesh-over-cyber-heist\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/solaire_6.jpg","datePublished":"2020-09-25T12:12:23+00:00","dateModified":"2022-08-08T19:16:35+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b"},"description":"Bloomberry named in suit by Bangladesh Bank over money laundered at Solaire casino resort following New York Fed cyber heist.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bloomberry-summoned-in-case-brought-by-bangladesh-over-cyber-heist\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bloomberry-summoned-in-case-brought-by-bangladesh-over-cyber-heist\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bloomberry-summoned-in-case-brought-by-bangladesh-over-cyber-heist\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/solaire_6.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/solaire_6.jpg","width":1184,"height":791,"caption":"The Solaire Casino Resort in Entertainment City, Manila, where much of the stolen money was laundered. (Image: Bloomberry Resorts)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bloomberry-summoned-in-case-brought-by-bangladesh-over-cyber-heist\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Asia Pacific Gaming","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/asia-pacific-gaming\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Bloomberry Summoned in Case Brought by Bangladesh Bank Over $101 Million Cyber Heist"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b","name":"Philip Conneller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","caption":"Philip Conneller"},"description":"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk","https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150001"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}