In the last 15 years, about $240 billion has been laundered from Bangladesh at an annual rate of $16 billion, according to the White Paper Committee.
Although attention has been paid to repatriation of laundered money and wealth since the change of government, not a single penny has been returned to the country till now.
Although a new task force was formed at the end of last September, their progress in the last 5 months has been limited with accounts seized.
Considering the time of the interim government, economists and insiders think that it will not be possible for this government to bring back any of the laundered money and it would be better not to give the public high hopes.
Dr Zahid Hussain, member of the White Paper Committee and also former lead economist of the World Bank's Dhaka office, told Dhaka Tribune: “Not revealing the strategy is also a strategy, so I don't know anything. But it doesn't mean that nothing is happening.
“However, with the time this government has left, I don't think this government will be able to bring back any money within this period. They could have laid the groundwork.”
Asked if the white paper contains any guidelines for repatriating laundered money, this economist said: “We said that at least $16 billion is laundered annually. Some theoretical guidelines have been given for repatriating wealth. However, how to practically catch the launderers and bring the money back will have to be decided by the task force.”
“I am hearing that elections will be held by December this year. In that case, it is far from being possible to bring back so much money within this period; even legal proceedings cannot be initiated in this short period of time. Because there must be forensic evidence for legal proceedings. These have to be proven in the courts of this country and the country where the money was laundered,” he explains.
“Honestly, if the case of at least one of the money launderers can be taken to court by December, that would be a significant achievement,” he added.
Bangladesh Bank Governor Ahsan H Mansur, regarding the repatriation of laundered money and wealth, said: “The repatriation of wealth takes many years. All we can hope for is to receive some judgment in Bangladesh and obtain some attachment of properties abroad.
“However, not all hope is lost, as countries like Nigeria, Malaysia, and Angola have successfully repatriated wealth.”
Procedure for repatriating laundered money
According to BFIU sources, the laundered money is recovered in five stages.
The first stage is to identify the accused person or organization. The second stage is to freeze the bank account of that person or organization.
The third stage is to investigate the complaint through the relevant investigation agency and collect the necessary information and data.
The fourth stage is to initiate legal proceedings in court, and the last stage is to recover the money.
But at the time of filing this report, most investigations still are in the second and third stages.
AKM Ehsan, executive director and acting head of Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU), told the media: “We are taking various initiatives to bring back the laundered money. But it has not been possible to bring back any money after August 5. It is a long process.”
“The ACC investigates money laundering. We collect intelligence information, collect information locally, and give that information to the countries that need it. They also give us information. This way, we collect information about the laundered money,” he added.
Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, head of the committee on the white paper on the state of the economy, and distinguished fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), told Dhaka Tribune earlier: “Bringing back the laundered money is a very complicated process as financial tracing or paper tracking is not so simple. If it is found, first of all, a case must be filed under the laws of the country. Then the decree must be taken from the court. Then, another decree has to be taken from the country where it was smuggled. All this must be done based on evidence.”
“Before that, it needs to be proven that these certain assets were purchased with that laundered money. Then those will be frozen. After that, if you get a decree on them, only then can it be sold, and we will be able to bring the money back to the country.
Second, there should be an agreement with the concerned country to bring that laundered money back. We do not have these agreements in place with many countries.
Third, even if there are contracts, we do not have the skilled lawyers or financial experts to use them. It is also not easy to find skilled people,” he explains.
Taskforce & Progress
The Ministry of Finance (MoF) issued a circular on the reconstitution of the task force on September 29, 2024. The government has reconstituted the interagency task force for the fifth time since its first formation in 2010.
The newly formed nine-member task force, headed by the new governor of the Bangladesh Bank, includes representatives from crucial state agencies like the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU), the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Bangladesh Police, Customs Intelligence, the Attorney General's Office, the Ministry of Law and Parliamentary Affairs, the Financial Institution Division, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Md Zakir Hossain, deputy governor of the BB, will coordinate the task force's activities, with BFIU providing secretarial support.
Under its ToR, the task force is tasked with tracing stolen assets abroad and supporting investigations aimed at their recovery.
It aims to expedite legal proceedings related to asset recovery, identify and address barriers to recovery, manage frozen or recovered assets abroad, and strengthen communication with relevant domestic and international bodies to gather essential information while enhancing internal coordination and capabilities.
The joint team has already started working under the Inter-Agency Task Force for Stolen Asset Recovery.
According to the sources, the committee is investigating the issue of searching for assets of members of Sheikh Hasina's family and the top ten business groups.
The industrial groups under the ACC investigation are Bashundhara, Beximco, S Alam, Gemcon, Nabil, Nassa, Orion, Sikder, Aramit and Summit. The list also includes individuals and institutions with interests in these groups.
In this regard, on January 6, the BFIU was instructed to form a team from the Financial Institutions Division of the Ministry of Finance, which will be led by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
In view of this, the BFIU abolished the joint investigation committees to investigate illegal money making, tax evasion and money laundering of the country's top 10 industrial groups and reconstituted 11 investigation teams on the same day.
The letter from the Finance Ministry, referring to the BFIU, said: "A joint investigation and investigation team may be formed by the ACC, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Bangladesh Police and the National Board of Revenue (NBR) to investigate corruption, fraud, forgery, currency smuggling and tax and customs related crimes, including money laundering, of these top groups. The ACC will lead this investigation."
In the meantime, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) wants to appoint an experienced international tax expert to recover revenue evaded from money laundering and laundered assets abroad.
The expert will work for the Central Intelligence Cell (CIC) and Income Tax Intelligence Unit at the National Board of Revenue.
A letter has been sent to the Secretary of the Economic Relations Division (ERD) recently requesting this.
This information has been revealed from a letter signed by NBR Member (Board Administration) GM Abul Kalam Kaikobad. A senior NBR official confirmed the matter.
Meanwhile, more than 1,500 bank accounts have been seized, where cash and shares worth Tk22,500 crore have been found, according to Bangladesh Bank.
According to BFIU sources, more than 250 investigation reports have already been sent to the CID and ACC.
Of these, audit reports of 20 have been completed. Based on that information, the Anti-Corruption Commission has started filing cases one by one.
