Plainclothes police tracked down a racket that alone, allegedly laundered a huge amount of money through hundi transactions recently, as the government launched drives to prop up Bangladesh's falling forex reserves.
The siphoned-off amount is equivalent to US$ 7.8 billion, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) claimed Thursday.
The CID came up with the disclosure after arresting 16 persons in this connection.
"Hundi traders (16 arrestees) have siphoned off Tk 750 billion, equivalent to US $7.8 billion, abroad from the country over the last one year by using mobile financial services like bKash, Nagad, Rocket and upay," Additional Inspector-General of Police (AIGP) and also chief of CID Mohammad Ali Mia told the media at a press briefing at CID's Malibagh office in the capital.
He said the plainclothes police started investigating the reasons behind the price hike of US dollar in exchange with the local-currency taka. And they tracked down the racket and nabbed 16 persons as an outcome of the investigation.
During interrogations, the CID chief said, the arrested persons informed the police that Tk 207 million was siphoned off over the last four months.
The investigators traced out 5,000 agents of bKash, Nagad, Rocket and upay by using the CID cyber-intelligence.
The CID official further said the 5,000 agents of bKash, Nagad, Rocket and upay were involved in MFS transactions.
"They (arrestees) have siphoned off Tk 250 billion over the last four months and Tk 750 billion during the last one year," he claimed.
Of the 16 held, six are bKash agents while three bKash distributor sales agents, three DSS of bKash, two hundi agents, one is associate of a hundi agent and the rest one an operator of hundi in the monetary underworld.
They, he said, have been involved in sending money abroad illegally from the country for a long time.
"We (CID) have all credible documents against them. We will seek their remand from the court. We will continue our drives against this vicious circle," said the CID official.
He said such vicious circles have been involved in siphoning off billions of taka through illegal use of MFS.
The AIGP said illegal money senders with the help of the MFS agents have been acquiring permanent assets and providing funds for gambling, yaba and gold smuggling and other sorts of illegal trading abroad.
The CID has been monitoring those who are sending money illegally by hundi from abroad and those received the money here in Bangladesh.
He warned that legal action would be taken if anyone found involved in sending money through illegal hundi and those received money here in Bangladesh.
To a question, the police high official said they had a meeting with the Bangladesh Bank governor recently about a section of Bangladeshi expatriates still sending money into the country through illegal hundi despite incentives provided by the government on remittance through banking channel.
"Bangladesh Bank is continuously monitoring it while the intelligence team of CID started working on it," he told the journalists.
The AIGP hoped that there would be a satisfactory solution regarding the matter.
He said the 16 persons were arrested following the similarities of detective information of Bangladesh Bank and the CID.
The suspects were named Akter Hossain (hundi agent), Didarul Alam Sabuj (hundi agent), Khorshed Alam Imon (an associate of hundi agent), Ruman Kanti Das Joy (bkash agent), Rashed Manzur Feroz (bkash agent), Md Hosainul Kabir (bkash DSS), Nobin Ullah (bkash DSS), Md Zunaidul Haque (bkash DSS), Adibur Rahman (bkash DSO), Asif Newaz (bkash DSO), Farhad Hossain (bkash DSO), Abdul Basir (bkash agent), Mahbubur Rahman Selim (bkash agent), Abdul Awal Sohag (bkash agent) and Fazle Rabbi (bkash agent).
The CID police also recovered cash worth over Tk 1.0 million, electronic money over Tk 34 million and four mobile sets.
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