ACC chief for jt action plan to check money laundering

Mentioning trade-based money laundering as one of the key reasons for capital flight from the country, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Chairman Iqbal Mahmood emphasised effective coordination among the revenue authority and central bank.
He said, "The commission has sent a letter to the National Board of Revenue (NBR) expressing its interest to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to pull the rein of money laundering."
He made the remarks at a meeting with the Resident Legal Advisor at the US Department of Justice Eric Opanga to strengthen mutual cooperation between the two parties at the ACC headquarters in the city's Segunbagicha.
The ACC chairman said money laundering might be checked through implementation of joint action plan with the Bangladesh Bank and NBR, according to an ACC press release.
He said, "ACC has no headache if someone accumulates wealth in a foreign country through earning money there, but it will be a scheduled offense under the ACC act if someone makes asset abroad via siphoning money from here."
Mr Mahmood expected cooperation from respective anti-graft authorities of different countries including Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the US to bring the people, who are involved in money laundering, under the rule of law.
He also mentioned that the US department of Justice and FBI have helped the anti-graft authority to bring back the money siphoned to the US and raise efficiency of ACC officials.
Stressing the need for improving efficiencies of ACC officials, he said, "The commission doesn't think it is usual to go abroad for skill development trainings."
Rather, renowned resource persons and trainers from US Justice Department and FBI can come to Bangladesh to hold training programmes for officials of the national anti-graft authority, Mr Mahmood added.
Hoping for increased collaboration with US Justice Department and FBI, he said the two organisations can help ACC in investigating graft incidents covering the areas of money laundering, cyber crime, forensic analysis, trade-based money laundering, stolen asset recovery, ICT based financial crime, and improving interrogation techniques.
ACC Muhammad Dilwar Bakht, Director General (Prevention) Sarwar Mahmud and Director General (ICT & Training) AKM Sohel were also present at the meeting.

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