Large-scale cyber money laundering alleged

A section of people and companies, involved with telecom and ICT-related business, are allegedly siphoning off a substantial amount of money from the country in the name of advertisements on some foreign websites.
Leaving aside the old ways of under- and over-invoicing, they are using some illegal online payment gateways for this purpose.
Coordinator of ICT Movement Julius Choudhury made the allegations to the media Tuesday.
He said the people and companies involved in such money laundering are very clever and technologically sound. That is why they chose some sites like Facebook and Google for the process, so that people or authorities concerned cannot sense their activities.
Millions of taka are being laundered everyday through facebook mobile notification by using platforms of the mobile companies. As a result, the government is also being deprived of getting a significant amount of revenue from the sector, he noted.
Despite having sufficient local online sites for advertisement of their products, the companies are giving advertisement on foreign websites to siphon off money, easily evading the government's eye.
The ICT Movement coordinator mentioned that the vested quarters are using the hype of digitization and have already built digital circles for this job.
He said his organisation has made a list of money-launderers and will hand it over to the Prime Minister soon.
The organisation has informed the telecom regulator and telecom ministry about the matter through formal letters and emails. But it did not get any response.
Julius Choudhury also informed the FE that the telecom regulator or ministry has no concern regarding the matter. That is why the digital money laundering is being easy for the vested quarters.
Earlier, the regulator did not take any action against internet price reduction. Even the commission could not bring out cost module of internet packages from the operators, he alleged.