By Nancy Carvajal
“It appeared that a user ID, which was used to gain access to the bank’s core system and increase the cash balance of the various suspects’ accounts, belonged to one of the bank managers,’’ said the source.
RELATED STORY: UCPB victim of Nigerian hackers: P167M allegedly stolen thru ATM, online transfers during security upgrade
The branch manager’s access code appeared on the logs of the bank’s Silverlake Integrated Banking System (SIBS) that updated the balance of the suspect’s accounts.
However, the bank manager denied any participation in the illegal transactions upon questioning by the National Bureau of Investigation, which was asked by UCPB management to look into the stolen funds.
RELATED STORY: UCPB probing P167M bank hack since June
Based on the records of one of the account holders linked to the P167 million theft, part of the loot was transferred to an “African nation” using an international courier remittance company, the source said.
Based on initial investigation, the suspects were able to funnel millions of cash out of UCPB through a combination of massive automated teller machine (ATM) withdrawals and online transfers that started on June 12 or Independence Day,which fell on a Friday,
The heist was allegedly carried out by a syndicate of Nigerians and Filipino partners which targeted the state bank during its regular online security upgrade.
UCPB has confirmed the missing P167 million which was first reported by BILYONARYO.
Apart from the NBI-Cybercrime Division, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is also investigating the UCPB online robbery.
