Help Bangladesh bring back stolen assets

Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has reiterated its call upon governments of the destination countries to take concrete actions to help Bangladesh expedite the return of stolen assets as part of their international commitments and responsibility, reports UNB.
The anti-graft watchdog made the call in view of the continued national and international media disclosures of accumulation of wealth in some countries by high profile publicly exposed Bangladeshis of the fallen regime.
The richer and so-called developed countries are the main destinations and beneficiaries of the lion's share of Bangladesh's laundered money, TIB says in a statement issued on Thursday.
In the statement, TIB Executive Director (ED) Dr Iftekharuzzaman said conventional hosts of money laundering like UK, USA and proverbial Switzerland have been joined in recent couple of decades by Canada, Australia, Singapore, Hong Hong, Malaysia, Middle East countries like UAE, especially Dubai and even many offshore island territories as attractive hosts of Bangladeshi laundered money.
"In each destination of illicit transfers, there are powerful syndicates of highly skilled law firms, trust companies, offshore specialists, real estate agents, accountants, regulatory experts, and banking and financial services companies that facilitate the secret deals. These syndicates have systematically strengthened the demand side over the years, and by providing safe and lucrative incentives to our money launderers contributed to flows of investments in host economies in multiple sectors, especially real estate, banking and luxury consumption, "he said.
In some cases, these are outcomes of relevant government policies or policy loopholes, whether deliberate or not , he said adding many such countries have been persistently keeping provisions to invest laundered money by various means like trusts, real estate, investment passports, etc.
"If not by policy provisions or loopholes in policies, enforcement deficiencies have helped creation of heavens for the money laundering facilitators who have been systematically incentivising money launderers of Bangladesh," he further stated.
TIB called upon the governments of the host countries of Bangladesh's laundered money like UK, USA, Canada, Dubai and Singapore to assist in this regard.