The Bank of Uganda (BoU) has said it has initiated an investigation into two incidents of fraudulent activity that resulted in international payments being diverted from their intended recipients.

The Daily Monitor reported that close to sh62b was reported stolen from the central bank by hackers, identifying themselves as “Waste” recently. The incident is said to have happened in September this year.

The BOU said in a statement issued by Kenneth Egesa, director communications and public relations, that: “We anticipate that the investigative findings will comprehensively clarify the details of how these payments were initiated and processed through the BOU. Once the investigation is complete, we will provide a detailed public update.

“The BOU takes these matters with the utmost seriousness. We immediately launched a comprehensive internal investigation to; Fully understand the complete extent of these incidents, conduct a thorough process review and identify and implement steps to prevent similar occurrences in the future.”

Background
The offshore hackers reportedly stole sh62b or $16.8m from the central bank. However, new information according to Daily Monitor indicated that a total sum of $13m (sh47.8b) was taken out, with $6m (sh22b) sent to an account in Japan and $7m (sh25.7b) wired to an account in London, the United Kingdom.

Meanwhile, New Vision reported that the central bank had successfully recovered over half of the money from the hackers.

At the end of September, a general inquiry file of the probe was opened at the Police’s Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID), with the involvement of counter intelligence detectives from the Defence Intelligence and Security (DIS), formally Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) and the Auditor General’s office.

Some BOU staff have reportedly recorded statements at police. It was also reported that a group of Ministry of Finance staff were picked and taken to CID headquarters in Kibuli, Kampala, to record statements according to Daily monitor.