The highest amount of money laundered from Bangladesh goes to 10 specific countries, said a recent report published by the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) and the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
According to the report, some corrupt and criminals from Bangladesh chose those 10 countries mainly for their lower tax rate and better rule of law there.
According to the report, those 10 countries where the highest amount of Bangladeshi money is illegally transferred are, Singapore, Canada, Malaysia, United States, United Kingdom, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, Australia, Hong Kong and Thailand.
The report mentioned that the almost all the laundered had some political connection and influence in the country. That is why it is quite difficult to take effective action against them.
However, the ACC has started taking various steps to bring back some of the money launderers and money they transferred illegally to different countries. Meanwhile, expatriate Bangladeshis have started a movement in Canada against money launderers.
Speaking on the issue, officials of the BFIU and ACC said a section of unscrupulous businessmen open LC and pay bills in the name of import. In reality no products are actually imported. Besides, money is laundered through over-invoicing of imports, under-invoicing of exports and hundi.
In addition, they said, recently, remittances have become another major means of money laundering. A syndicate collects remittances from expatriates in foreign currency and leaves it abroad. And the syndicate members pay the remittance to the expatriates or their relatives in this country with the money earned through corruptions.
ACC Chairman Iqbal Mahmood said, "We are working to prevent corruption and money laundering."
Talking about money laundering by some non-government organisations to Singapore, the ACC Chairman said that these are out of the purview of the ACC, which is being looked into by the CID.
Experts suggest taking legal actions to stop money laundering and bring the laundered money back from different countries.
They also have put emphasis on the process of identification of the corrupt people who are involved in the money laundering. In this regard, different agencies of the government concerned should also be sincere in this regard.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh has become a member of the Egmont Group in July 2013 to exchange information on stopping terrorist financing at home and abroad and preventing money laundering. At present, 159 countries are members of the group. As Bangladesh is a member of this group, it will now be able to collect any information from all those member states on money laundering and terrorist financing.
It should be mentioned that reports of four international organisations on money laundering have revealed shocking information of money laundering from Bangladesh. These organisations are; Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a US-based organization, Swiss Bank, UNDP and the Panama and Paradise Paper of ICIJ, an organization of investigative journalists based in the United States. According to the GFI report, an estimated Tk 5 lakh crore was illegally transferred from Bangladesh to different countries.
According to the latest report of the Swiss Bank, the deposit of Bangladeshis in Switzerland is over 5.5 thousand crore while the Panama and Paradise Papers have disclosed the information about the money laundering by 84 Bangladeshis.
According to these agencies, the money laundered from Bangladesh goes to at least 36 developed countries. But highest amount of money is laundered to 10 of the countries identified by BFIU and ACC.
The ACC has recently disclosed information about the laundering of 100 crore US dollar or Tk 8,500 crore by some Bangladeshi businessmen to Singapore.
The ACC also said that Tk 227 crore was laundered to Singapore by expelled president of Dhaka City South Unit Juba League president Ismail Hossain Chowdhury Samrat arrested in an anti-casino drive.
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) arrested Faridpur district unit president of Bangladesh Chhatra League, Nishan Mahamud Shamim on August 21 on charges of laundering Tk 2,000 crore.
The CID also arrested two another ruling party leaders in Faridpur for amassing wealth illegally worth Tk 2,000 crore.
Huge amount of wealth of Laxmipur lawmaker Mohammad Shahid Islam was seized for his involvement with money laundering.
In a recent statement Foreign Minister Dr AK Abul Momen said a large number of government service holders and businessmen and politicians have laundered huge amount of money to Canada, where they made their second homes.
