A government committee has decided to incorporate a new provision into its proposed amendment to the Anti-Monetary Laundering law that Bangladesh Bank will monitor financial transactions of influential persons, official sources said.
The decision was made at a meeting on National Coordination Committee of anti-money laundering activities at the finance ministry auditorium yesterday, with Finance Minister AMA Muhith in the chair.
Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Chairman M Badiuzzman, Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Atiur Rahman, Attorney General Mahbub-e-Alam, Banking Division Secretary M Aslam Alam and National Board of Revenue Chairman Md Ghulam Hussain attended the meeting.
Sources said according to the proposed provision all scheduled banks will regularly inform the financial intelligence unit (FIU) of Bangladesh Bank about bank account information of influential persons in the country under the Financial Action Task Force recommendations on Anti-Money Laundering Law 2012.
The task force is the United Nation’s anti-money laundering wing that was formed to prevent money laundering activities across the globe.
Earlier, as per the task force recommendations, the provision included politically influential persons, but later the finance division dropped the word “politically.”
Over the last one year, the Home Ministry, specially police department, and Anti-Corruption Commission are at loggerheads over police involvement with the investigation and trial of anti-money laundering cases.
A source in the meeting quoted the finance minister as saying: “I have taken the matter in my own hand and I will talk to law minister in this regard.”
In his opinion, Muhith said all money-laundering cases should be filed with ACC. He added that both police and ACC could carry out investigation into the anti-money laundering cases.
Members on the meeting also suggested police carry out the investigation as per the directives of ACC, according to the source.
ACC Chairman M Badiuzzman said the meeting took no final decision, but the commission has strongly opposed the move to hand over to police the responsibility of investigation into anti-money laundering cases.
The anti-graft watchdog has direct responsibility to investigate anti-money laundering cases, he added.
“The government will take decision after discussing the matter with stakeholders.”
Earlier, Banking Division took steps to make changes to at least four clauses of the Anti-Money Laundering Law despite opposition from the ACC.
Currently, the anti-graft body has the sole authority to conduct investigation and trial of an offence under the anti-money laundering law.
In support of the proposed changes, the logic was that the ACC lacked skilled manpower in dealing with the cases.
But the ACC officials ruled out such “lack of manpower” and said the body’s performance in dealing with cases was satisfactory.
Since 2009, the anti-graft body inquired 285 cases on money laundering. Of them, 254 cases were filed and charge sheets were given in 112 cases.
The court settled three cases and the ACC won in all of them. The ACC confiscated 1,011 bank accounts found linked with money laundering while the frozen accounts had around Tk289 crore.
