Special Correspondent
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) will seek assistance from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to recover the money that was laundered to the United States of America and Canada.
The country’s anti-graft watchdog will hold a ‘special’ meeting with a FBI team today at the ACC headquarters, official sources said.
Robert Cameron, legal attache of the FBI will lead the US team and ACC’s Director General of Money Laundering and Legal Wing will lead Bangladesh side in the meeting.
The interim government led by Dr Muhammad Yunus, was formed on 8 August, following the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on 5 August amid nationwide student and public protests against the government.
After taking the office, it has announced that a task force will be formed to bring back laundered money from abroad and acquire local assets of the people who embezzled money from banks.
Bangladesh Bank's financial intelligence unit, criminal investigation department of police, and anti-corruption commission have started recovering the embezzled and laundered money.
The government has already contacted various foreign organisations seeking their assistance regarding the repatriation of the money.
“As part of the move, the ACC is going to hold a meeting with the FBI team today where Bangladesh will seek their cooperation and legal support to bring back the money laundered by the Bangladesh’s political leaders, formers ministers, MPs, government officials, businessmen and influential people to the USA,” an ACC official told The South Asian Times, seeking anonymity
It is reported that some unscrupulous businessmen and other influential persons have in recent years embezzled huge sums of money anonymously and laundered it abroad through rampant corruption and fraud in the banking sector. The money and assets laundered and embezzled from the banking sector is believed to be over Tk 1 lakh crore.
“The government is working to bring back the money laundered abroad and acquire local assets of the people, who had embezzled money from banks,” said Bangladesh Bank (BB) governor Ahsan H Mansur.
He added, “The local assets of the people, who embezzled money from various banks will be acquired soon. Besides, laundered money will also be brought back home. We have already communicated with various countries to this end.
The BB governor told this to reporters while speaking at a press briefing at the central bank’s headquarters in the city on Wednesday.
“The corrupted people mainly laundered money to Dubai, Singapore and the US. We have already communicated with the US to bring back their foreign assets. A family of smugglers owns 500 to 600 homes in the UK. We will try to acquire their local assets and then we will bring back their foreign assets,” he categorically said.
The central bank governor, however, said reforms are underway in banks and financial institutions associated with such corruption and money laundering.
An ACC official said, “We can form a joint investigation team with the FBI in dealing with the complex money laundering and corruption cases. In such cases, the FBI can help recover the money siphoned off to the USA and Canada illegally by Bangladeshi nationals."
Over the past few weeks, the ACC has launched inquiries into at least 82 high-profile individuals, including 71 former ministers and MPs and also digging into the affairs of over 200 others, including their family members.
These investigations will focus on allegations of corruption during their time in office, ACC sources said.
Among the former ministers under scrutiny are Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, AHM Mustafa Kamal, Shajahan Khan, Zillul Hakim, Tipu Munshi, Nasrul Hamid, Anisul Huq, Dipu Moni, Tajul Islam, Junaid Ahmed Palak, Zahid Malek, Mohibul Hassan Chowdhury Nowfel, Hasanul Haq Inu, and Hasan Mahmud.
Additionally, at least 38 former parliamentarians are now on the wanted list. Among them are Ashim Kumar Ukil, Saifuzzaman Shikhor, Dhirendra Devnath Shambhu, Kujendra Lal Tripura, Sheikh Afil Uddin, Kazi Nabil Ahmed, Enamul Haque, Solaiman Haque Joarder, and Shah Alam Talukder.
These former ministers and MPs face various charges, including abuse of power, acquiring illegal wealth worth thousands of crores of taka, smuggling money and gold abroad, and amassing unusual assets under their family members' names.
Former ACC Director General Maidul Islam told the media that despite complaints against these individuals, the ACC could not take action for a long time. The files were left unattended. After the fall of the authoritarian regime, cases are being looked into.
"It clearly indicates that the previous government exerted significant influence on the ACC. With the current government, such influence is no longer present."
When a complaint is submitted to the ACC, the scrutiny committee reviews it and recommends whether to proceed with an inquiry. However, influential figures have largely escaped scrutiny.
Officials said, last year, the ACC received 15,437 complaints, of which only 845 were accepted for inquiry. In the first six months of this year, from 5,300 complaints, only 363 were approved for inquiry.
In other words, despite receiving over a thousand complaints each month, only 50-60 are selected for probing, most of which involve minor corruption.
Since the fall of the Awami League government, there has been a shift towards focusing on major corruption cases, according to officials.
