ACC sends 71 letters seeking foreign help

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has sent 71 letters to various foreign entities and authorities, seeking their cooperation in tracing and repatriating money laundered abroad.
Md Akhtar Hossain, director general of the watchdog, revealed the information at a meeting between ACC officials and a four-member delegation from the European Union (EU) on Tuesday.
The ACC has been working actively to recover colossal funds laundered abroad, according to him.
Replying to a query, Mr Akhtar said 71 mutual legal assistance requests were sent to recover the money, but the ACC has only received responses to 27 requests so far.
The ACC would provide more information regarding laundered funds later. It also sought cooperation from the EU delegation to this end, he added.
Mr Akhtar said they presented to the delegation a mountain of obstacles faced by the ACC in its investigations and enquiries.
The ACC, therefore, urged the EU team to help it retrieve the funds that have been siphoned off from Bangladesh to other countries.
The EU team members included development officials Michal Krejza, Pablo Padin Perez, Nader Tanja and Kishower Amin.
On the other hand, ACC chairman Mohammad Moinuddin Abdullah, secretary Khorsheda Yasmeen, director general Akhtar, and directors Abdullah Al Zahid and Golam Shariar joined the meeting.
Sources said the delegation was informed of ACC activities, detailing about enhancing its capacity, particularly in preventing money laundering and recovering embezzled assets with the EU's assistance.
The EU delegation promised to lend their full support to the ACC.
Previously, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) sat with the ACC regarding the return of such funds.
They focused on investigating graft allegations, particularly highlighting money laundering, cybercrime, forensic analysis of financial transactions, strategies for questioning perpetrators, asset recovery, financial crimes conducted through technology, mutual legal assistance and information exchange.

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