Bringing looted money back home

Within two months of assuming office, the interim government of Dr Muhammad Yunus on September 29 formed a 9-member task force headed by the Bangladesh Bank governor to bring back the money stolen and smuggled out of the country during the previous regime. The task force started work with immediate effect. Notably, the task force was formed through restructuring an existing one formed by the previous government. Interestingly, the previous government did itself form a task force ostensibly to recover the money its own people had stolen from the country illegally and deposited in overseas banks and tax havens! Needless to say, such anti-money laundering task force created during the previous regime was mere eyewash and never meant to run its course and succeed in holding the criminals behind looting the country to account.The way the ruling party leaders, ministers, civil servants, bankers, privileged business people and others enjoying ruling party's favour together looted the state and its resources is unprecedented.

Banks, for instance, were looted with wild abandon with the connivance of the highest office in the government. During the 15 plus years of Sheikh Hasina's regime, according to the Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington DC-based think tank that tracks corruption, money laundering and illicit financial flow, an amount of Tk17.9 trillion, equivalent to US$149.2 billion, was smuggled out of the country. The GFI further informed that annually a sum of about US$8.27 billion was being laundered out of the country through 'trade misinvoicing including', over-invoicing, under-invoicing as well as hundi.

Trade misinvoicing is about illicitly moving money across national borders through deliberately falsifying value of imports and exports. In this process, between 2005 and 2014, GFI further reports, US$ 61.6 billion was taken out of the country illegally.

The Bangladesh customs in 2023 found that 33 readymade garment (RMG) factories and buying houses had together laundered to the tune of Tk 8.21 billion out of the country during the previous six years.

The anti-money laundering think tank further predicted that if such illicit cross-border transfer of money continued unabated, by 2030, the amount to be so laundered would exceed US$14 billion per year.

Thankfully, the regime that allowed such rampant looting of state resources has been overthrown by the student-led mass uprising on August 5. Mercifully, the plundering of the nation has come to a halt now.

In this connection, one would like to be reassured that as the current head of the anti-money laundering task force, the BB governor, Dr Ahsan H. Mansur, recently told the media, his team was working hard to bring back the laundered money through bilateral and international legal process. To this end, the interim government is learnt to be planning to devise a roadmap as well as reach bilateral agreements with destination countries to repatriate the money.

While appreciating BB governor's optimism, one needs to bear in mind that the history of repatriation of money thus lost to laundering and other forms of illicit transfers is not very encouraging. Moreover, the process is very difficult and time-consuming. In fact, there is no single international authority to provide support in getting back laundered money. In that case, one has to approach a number of international institutions, laws, conventions for the purpose. In addition to international laws, a country's own anti- money laundering provisions like the Money Laundering Prevention Act of Bangladesh is a tool to confiscate laundered money at home. Internationally, repatriation of laundered money from another country is done by way of Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA). Treaties to this effect, i.e., Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties (MLATs), reached with different countries, can be of help in this regard. Bangladesh, for instance, has signed MLATs with India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, China, South Korea, the US, the UK and Russia. However, Bangladesh will be required to expand the list and sign MLATs also with other countries where its laundered money is usually destined such as Canada, Cyprus, Switzerland, etc. Also, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) can be accessed for support in the areas of combating money laundering and recovering assets thus laundered abroad.

The kinds of assistance UNODC offers include Stolen Asset Recovery (STAR) Initiative, Asset Recovery and Asset Management Program (ARAMP) and UNODC Global Programme on Money Laundering.

Other UN bodies that deal with corruption as well as recovering ill-gotten assets through corruption include the United Nations Conventions against Corruption (UNCAC). Seeking UNCAC's assistance in recovering stolen assets requires the countries in need of support to cooperate with one another regarding investigation and prosecution of money laundering cases.

The good news is that the interim government has already taken some steps to repatriate the money transferred illegally abroad during the past regime. The Bangladesh Bank (BB) has reportedly decided to employ private law firms to bring the stolen assets. Representatives of the development partners including the US, the UK, the World Bank (WB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Asian Development Bank (ADB) are to provide required policy support in this regard.

These are indeed positive developments as international donor agencies and someWestern governments have come forward to help Bangladesh recover some of the money laundered out to overseas destinations.Notably, a large chunk of the money was taken abroad after looting banks. It is worthwhile to mention here that, as the BB governor told a foreign media house recently, 12 banks were thus looted by their owners and the stolen money amounting to Tk2.0 trillion or US$16.70 billion has been taken illegally to destinations like Singapore and Dubai.

Given the international support it is receiving, the government must act fast to bring those bank robbers to justice and recover the looted money.

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