No headway in retrieving siphoned off wealth: Corrupt ones continue to thrive

The government is yet to make any significant progress in retrieving the money, which was smuggled out of the country by a section of people including some politicians.
It is widely believed that the corrupt goons have siphoned off a huge amount of money and kept it illegally in different countries, including Malaysia, Singapore, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States and some Middle East countries.
During the anti-graft drive of the erstwhile caretaker government, a number of politicians admitted before different agencies of having their ill-gotten wealth smuggled out of the country.
Nearly 100 high-profile politicians fled to other countries to evade arrest at that time. Some of them were hiding abroad with their family members and were also convicted by the court in absentia.
However, most of them are now getting routes to escape through legal loopholes.
According to available information provided by the sources, during the anti-graft drive many of the politicians were residing in their houses abroad which they have bought with the money smuggled out of the country.
A good number of former ministers, parliament members of major political parties including BNP and Awami League were reportedly staying in their own houses in different foreign countries.
A former minister, who was in the cabinet of HM Ershad and also of Sheikh Hasina, is owning a number of houses in foreign countries, was hiding in the USA during the anti-graft crackdown. He is learnt to have houses and assets in different forms in the USA, UK, Singapore and Malaysia.
Many other politicians also own residential and business establishments abroad but none of them have mentioned anything about it in their wealth statements submitted before the Election Commission (EC) and the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC).
Authorities in the caretaker regime repeatedly said that they had sufficient proofs in hand about the destination of the illegal funds and had proceeded quite far in bringing back the laundered money.
The then government formed a 10-member high-powered task force, headed by the BB governor, to coordinate efforts of different agencies to bring back such money.
In line with the government’s move, the Bangladesh Bank sought cooperation of the Bank Negara Malaysia, the central bank of Malaysia, for signing an agreement to bring back siphoned-off money by alleged corrupt people.
However, the process of bringing siphoned off money back to the country remains uncertain as Bangladesh is yet to get favourable response from the financial intelligence agencies of other countries.
An official of the office of Attorney General said that the BB has furnished them with a list of names of persons who have illegally sent huge amounts of money to foreign countries.
Bangladesh Bank sources said the government communicated with Financial Intelligence Units of 40 countries to sign agreement for bringing back the money, but many of them are reluctant to ink agreements as per Bangladesh’s conditions.
So far, only six countries have signed agreements with Bangladesh in this regard. The countries are Nepal, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, Afghanistan and Indonesia, Bangladesh Bank sources said.
Bangladesh has applied to Egmont Group, a coordinating company of over 100 Financial Intelligence Units across the globe, for its membership as part of the effort to bring back the siphoned off money.
Officials of Bangladesh Bank are saying that signing agreement with Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, UAE, Singapore, USA and Canada is under process.
Major Gen (retd) Subid Ali Bhuyian, a parliament member of ruling Awami League who is also a chairman of a parliamentary standing committee, earlier in a television talk show said, most of the findings of different agencies during the anti-graft drive of Fakhruddin’s caretaker government, are correct and objective.
Corruption breeds out of the power of ill-gotten wealth. But the anti-graft drive has apparently lost its steam to the disappointment of the people.

Courtesy of The New Nation