Money laundering cases on the rise
The number of money laundering cases lodged with the Anti-Corruption Commission increased by more than 25 percent year-on-year in 2014.
The anti-graft watchdog conducted 226 enquiries last year, up from 180 in 2013 and 39 in 2012, according to the ACC's annual report for 2014.
“The number rose because of our increased efforts in dealing with the cases,” ACC Chairman M Badiuzzaman told The Daily Star.
Though the number of enquiries rose remarkably, there was no development in recovering the siphoned money, mainly due to poor cooperation among the agencies concerned.
On average, illicit outflows eats away 1.1 percent of the country's gross domestic product a year, Global Financial Integrity, a Washington-based research organisation, said in a report in June.
The slippage amounts to 12.7 percent of the country's total tax revenue, according to the study.
On average, $1.31 billion a year was funnelled out of Bangladesh between 2003 and 2012, according to the research organisation.
Bangladeshi citizens' deposits with various Swiss banks rose 36.02 percent year-on-year in 2014, according to a report of the central bank of Switzerland this year.
The amount was Tk 4,283 crore (506 million Swiss francs) last year, up from Tk 3,149 crore in 2013 and Tk 1,991 crore in the previous year, according to data from Swiss National Bank.
Several reports also show that Malaysia is the other major destination of money from Bangladesh in recent years.
More than 3,000 Bangladeshis have taken up the Malaysia My Second Home programme, sending nearly Tk 3,500 crore out of the country illegally.
But the ACC cannot do anything to recover the money. “We sought information from Malaysia on the Bangladeshis who have allegedly laundered the money. But we are yet to get any information,” Badiuzzaman said.
The ACC has initiated to sign a memorandum of understanding with Malaysia to build cooperation on money laundering, but the proposal awaits the law ministry's vetting for months now.
Through the attorney general's office, the ACC sent 34 mutual legal assistance requests (MLARs) to different countries, seeking information on the Bangladeshis who laundered money out of the country.
Mutual legal assistance is a method of cooperation between states for obtaining assistance in the investigation or prosecution of criminal offences.
Politicians and businesses are involved in most cases of the 34 MLARs, according to ACC officials.
The commission has not yet received any feedback on even half the MLARs, officials said.
“The countries where the money was laundered ask for a court's judgment. Otherwise they'll not give information or send back any money,” the ACC chairman said.
On ways to effectively handle money laundering issues, Abu Hena Mohd Razee Hassan, a deputy governor of Bangladesh Bank, said, “The ACC can look for other avenues of international cooperation to recover the money.”
The ACC can seek information from Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units, of which Bangladesh is a member, he added.
Egmont Group has 146 member countries that exchange information on money laundering issues.
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