Bangladeshi embassies in some richer countries are reportedly getting huge requests from expatriates for authorisation of power of attorney for selling their assets in homeland to take money abroad, prompting prevention plans.
After selling the assets they are taking money abroad through 'hundi' or other illegal channels as capital account is nonconvertible in Bangladesh, a top official of the foreign ministry informed the national coordination committee on preventing money laundering and terrorism financing.
He said expatriate Bangladeshis staying in countries like the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada are making such requests several times higher than ever before.
Sources said Finance Adviser of the interim government Dr Salehuddin Ahmed convened a meeting of the coordination committee few days after he took office following the August uprising that topped the past government and sent many high-ups on flight.
At the meeting, the adviser had asked the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) to take measures against any attempt to launder money abroad, based on commercial transaction report and suspicious transaction report (STR) of the commercial banks.
Sources said new central-bank governor Dr Ahsan H Mansur at the meeting said if the BFIU could set an example of bringing back money by properly investigating some 10/12 reports, the incidence of corruption and money laundering would go down significantly.
He cited Indian success in bringing back siphoned-off money, in this context, saying that taking effective measures is also possible for Bangladesh. A government agency will have to take lead role in this regard.
Mr Ahsan suggested that the Financial Intelligence Unit or the Anti-Corruption Commission should work as coordinator for the tasks.
Sources said the meeting was told that Bangladesh sent request for mutual legal- assistance treaty to ten countries where the laundered money believed to have landed.
However, the country hardly receives any response from the countries wherefrom assistance was sought to investigate the incidents of money laundering.
The meeting asked the foreign ministry to be more active to get responses against the requests sent to the countries concerned.
Meantime, last month, the financial institutions division asked the BFIU to prepare a draft of an ordinance to incorporate a provision of providing commission to officials into the money-laundering prevention act.
Officials who will be able to successfully bring back laundered money will get a portion of repatriated money, as per a decision made at a meeting of a money-laundering-prevention taskforce on July 4 this year with the attorney-general in the chair.
The Bangladesh Bank governor, Dr Ahsan H Mansur, recently said some US$17 billion worth of money had been laundered away from Bangladesh during the past regime. Conglomerates that were linked with the Sheikh Hasina governments siphoned off the money mainly from the banking sectors.
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