A spreading scandal over the mysterious electronic theft of $81 million from Bangladesh’s official account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York prompted the governor of that country’s central bank to resign Tuesday, and three of his subordinates were fired.

They were the first political casualties since the theft came to light this month, when news reports from the Philippines said unidentified hackers using official electronic bank messaging technology had diverted the money in early February. Most or all of the stolen money, one of the biggest electronic heists in history, is thought to have been transferred to accounts in the Philippines.

The Bangladesh central bank governor, Atiur Rahman, a widely respected economist, appeared to be caught by surprise, having learned of the theft only from Philippines news reports about a money-laundering investigation there. Last week he threatened to sue the New York Fed, a critical global financial gateway that holds the deposits of many foreign central banks.

The New York Fed said in a statement last Wednesday that the transfer of the money had been “fully authenticated” by an international financial messaging system, known as Swift, suggesting that there may have been a security breach in Bangladesh. The Fed statement said its systems had not been compromised.