Govt approves strategy to recover laundered money

The government has approved a strategy to freeze or confiscate unreported offshore assets of Bangladeshi nationals.

According to the guideline on legal framework and strategic process for laundered asset recovery, the government will conduct joint investigations for bringing back the assets with countries where they have been syphoned off.

The guideline was approved at the meeting of the taskforce on money laundering on Tuesday chaired by Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal.

The guideline says in case of a delay in getting court order to seize the assets, the government via the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit will send a letter of rogatory – a formal request from a court to a foreign court for judicial assistance – to the countries concerned so the laundered money cannot be transferred to another country.

People concerned say such actions will weaken a money launderer financially, psychologically and socially, and will also limit their ability to influence investigation, which will lead to a prompt and proper investigation.

Anti-Corruption Commission's ex-chairman Ghulam Rahman said, "We will be able to bring back laundered money following the strategies if we ensure an inter-agency coordination."

But, it will be difficult to bring back the undisclosed money kept in tax haven countries that do not cooperate much in this matter, he added.

In the FY23 budget, the government had offered Bangladeshis a scope for legalising their unreported movable assets abroad if repatriated to Bangladesh, subject to paying a 7% tax. But no one has availed this offshore tax amnesty yet.

The government has no data on how much money is laundered abroad every year. But according to the US-based think-tank Global Financial Integrity, Bangladesh lost a whopping $49.65 billion or around Tk4,71,675 crore on an average between 2009 and 2015 (except the year 2014).

On an average, around Tk84,475 crore was syphoned off the country each year during the period, as per the report.

Bank accounts of many launderers were seized and cases were filed against them under the Money Laundering Prevention Act, but there had been only two instances of bringing the money back since the independence of the country.

At one instance, Tk21 crore laundered by BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia's youngest son Arafat Rahman Koko was brought back from Singapore. In another case, $150,000 from the Philippines and $20 million from Sri Lanka were retrieved of the $81 million stolen from the Bangladesh Bank's reserve.