Why is ACC failing to nab money launderers?

Money laundering is one of the biggest scourges that Bangladesh is currently facing. In fact, the country has been ranked by the Global Financial Unit among the top 30 countries in the world in terms of illicit financial flows, with around 20 percent of its international trade value being siphoned out of the country every year. We, therefore, find the comments the High Court made on March 6, 2022, upbraiding the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) for its consistent failure to haul up the money launderers and bring them to book, extremely pertinent. The ACC must reckon seriously with the problem and play its part in plugging the holes that allow billions of dollars' worth of money to leave our country.

It bears repeating that money laundering has assumed a serious proportion and has become a most potent non-military threat to the country's national security. It thus begs the question as to why we continue to witness unbridled and exponential growth of this menace. It is awe-inspiring to read reports in the media of how individual X or Y managed to transfer billions of dollars to a third country; how an order barring a launderer's departure from the country reached the authorities 15 minutes after the individual's plane had already taken off; how banks have been sapped, not by the public, but by the owners, and money transferred abroad without the authorities doing anything about it. Such events only raise questions about the role of the relevant agencies in dealing with the issue.

The Panama Papers and Paradise Papers have revealed names of the rich and the sly, who managed to circumvent the rules and manipulated the system to launder money. One cannot rule out the exploitation of political links by these elements to fulfil their heinous plans. We, therefore, ask: What happened to the court's directive to investigate the reports of the said two papers? What measures have been taken against those named? In fact, the investigative authorities are obligated under the Anti-Money Laundering Act to constantly provide the authorities with intelligence and actionable information, as well as with suspicious activity reports, in order to help curb money laundering.

There are a raft of guidelines and bevy of agencies to address the menace. What is the point of these guidelines and agencies if the menace cannot be managed? The High Court rightly observed once that the money launderers are the enemy of the people. We would like to add that those that help them in the process are enemies of the country, too.