ACC couldn’t probe money launderers in five years
The High Court five years ago allowed the Anti-Corruption Commission to conduct enquiries and investigations into any type of corruption and take necessary action against the offenders, but the graft watchdog failed to bring the Bangladeshis, who deposited money in overseas banks and purchased properties abroad, to book.
The ACC even could not put forward any findings or information to the HC about those who bought properties in different countries, including Canada and Malaysia with laundered money, despite its repeated directives.
The commission keeps telling the HC that it has limitations with regards to tracing and putting the money launderers on trial under the relevant law.
On January 27, the ACC submitted a report to a HC bench, containing the names of 61 Bangladeshis and seven organisations mentioned in the Panama Papers and Paradise Papers as money launderers.
The bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Md Mostafizur Rahman is scheduled to hold a hearing on this issue today.
Meanwhile, the ACC has requested the government to make necessary amendments to the money laundering prevention act in order to empower the commission to conduct enquiries and investigations into money laundering.
On March 24, 2017, an HC bench in a verdict allowed the ACC to carry out enquiries and probes into any type of corruption and take necessary actions against the offenders.
"If we consider the above aims and objects of the Anti-Corruption Commission as completed in section 17, in particular 17(ga) and 17(ta) of the Anti-Corruption Commission Act, 2004, we have no hesitation to hold that to prevent corruption/corrupt, the commission has got unfettered power to make any enquiry, investigation and to take necessary actions/steps in accordance with law as it thinks fit and proper in any form of corruption," the HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Shahidul Karim observed in the verdict.
ACC's principal counsel Khurshid Alam Khan on Friday said there are confusions and ambiguities regarding the law and its interpretations.
The graft watchdog has taken an initiative to amend the Money Laundering Prevention Act, 2012, he told The Daly Star.
Under the law, the commission is allowed to conduct enquiries only against public servants, the lawyer said.
The ACC cannot carry out enquiries into the money laundering allegations against private citizens under the law, he added.
ACC Secretary Mahbub Hossain on February 17 this year sent a letter to the cabinet secretary, saying that if the graft watchdog is granted the jurisdiction over enquiring into money laundering, it would be able to play a role in keeping the crime under control.
Khurshid said if the Money Laundering Prevention Act is amended in line with the ACC's requirement, the commission will have no limitations on conducting enquiries and probing money launderers.
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