TDS Desk

Bangladesh Bank (BB) has approved the appointment of an international ‘Law Firm’ to take legal assistance in recovering money smuggled out of the country.

The policy was approved in the bank’s board meeting on Sunday (November 10), said BB spokesperson and executive director Husne Ara Shikha on Monday (November 11).

“Bangladesh will take the assistance of the World Bank and the government of the United States in selecting a qualified law firm,” the meeting decided.

A senior BB official told the media that a huge money has been laundered in several countries including the UK, Canada, Singapore, United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) has already contacted the governments of those countries to recover the money.

“Information has been sought about the names of various individuals and companies, including the controversial businessman S Alam. International legal institutions will now be appointed for overall assistance. Along with that, a separate task force will be formed to recover the smuggled money,” he added.

After the interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus took over, investigations were started on allegations of money laundering during the previous Awami League government. That’s why communication with various foreign organizations was also started.

A press release sent by the Chief Adviser’s office on August 28 said that the government is taking the joint assistance of the new management board of the banks, BFIU of Bangladesh Bank, CID of Police, and ACC for this recovery work.

The Chief Adviser’s office says that the amount of money smuggled and embezzled in the country and abroad is estimated to be lakhs of crores of takas, but the government is working to determine the actual amount.

“Certain unscrupulous businessmen and other influential persons have in recent years, through rampant corruption and fraud in the banking sector, embezzled huge sums of money in their names and smuggled it abroad, the exact amount of which is ongoing,” it added.

Washington-based research organization Global Financial Integrity (GFI) says that an average of 753 crores 37 lakh dollars or Tk 80,000 crore have been smuggled out of Bangladesh every year.

Not only individuals but many financial institutions and banks in the country are indirectly involved in the money laundering process.

Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) shows that in the last one and a half years, only 24 loan scams of 19 domestic banks have smuggled around Tk 100,000 crores to different countries of the world.