Dhaka – The Provisional Government will enact a special law to simplify the recovery process of money laundering during the Sheikh Hasina regime.
Chief Advisory Secretary Shafiqul Alam said at a press conference yesterday that the special law will be made within a week and will provide a legal framework for the search of the money.
The requests of various foreign entities and organizations that assist the government in getting money laundering funds are being addressed.
“Bringing money laundering is a long process, with many legal issues. It’s crucial for us to recover that money. We hope that if we can make enough progress, we will be able to recover billions of dollars of assets by the end of this year.”
The comments were posted by Chief Advisor Professor Muhammad Yunus chaired a meeting and was composed with a high-power inter-agency mission designed to bring back money from illegal travel abroad.
Yunus called for accelerating efforts to bring back billions of dollars of currency from the banking system and other means.
“This is a top priority for the government. We hope to bring back the stolen money. The chief adviser stressed the importance of acting quickly and ensuring that this effort wasted a day.
The task force has identified 11 priority cases involving expelled Prime Minister Hasina, her family, the organizations they contacted, as well as former Land Minister and Awami Alliance leader Saifuzzaman Chowdhury.
For the sake of investigation, the names of all individuals involved in the 11 cases were not disclosed.
“The first case is money laundering by Sheikh Hasina, her family and contact organizations,” Shafiqul said.
He said the joint investigative team has traced assets related to Hasina, her family and its associated individuals and organizations to the United States, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and the Cayman Islands.
“Russian mud fund [a reserve of money used for illicit purposes, especially political bribery] He said it has been identified in the Malaysian Bank,” he added that the task force’s goal is to freeze foreign assets related to the priority case by the end of the year.
It also aims to get the British government to impose sanctions on Bangladesh people who laundered money in the UK within six months and to speed up domestic cases against the defendants.
There are 124 bank accounts, belonging to Hasina, Rs 635.14 crore of her family members and the connected organization, which has been frozen or attached. In addition, the official document has been determined in Purbachal's 60 katha plot, worth Rs 18 crore.
However, according to government estimates, each land in the region is worth about 40 million.
In addition, eight apartments and 10 decimal land were tracked for £8.5 billion. Six cases have been charged with fraud and forgery.
Shafiqul said six cases have been investigated and a fee schedule has been submitted, adding that seven members of Hasina's family have imposed an international travel ban on them.
Regarding Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, Shafiqul said international media reports showed he used the money stolen by the Bangladesh people to buy a block abroad.
The National Income Commission is investigating 11 tax evasion cases in Saifuzzaman and individuals and organizations associated with him.
The court has attached four properties worth £2 billion, while the petition is attached with two plots and a decimal number of 31,594.39 land.
In addition, under the court order, 39 bank accounts with a balance of 5.227 billion tons have been frozen, with a total balance of 5.22 billion tons and shares worth Rs 10.285 billion have been frozen.
Information about the UAE owns 228 properties, 7 properties in the United States and 343 properties in the United Kingdom have been sent to various countries through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In addition, a travel ban was imposed on two members of Saifuzzaman's family.
For 10 cases, assets worth 17.117 billion tons were frozen or attached. Meanwhile, 188 BO accounts have 1.55 billion tons of stocks.
Shafiqul said that in addition to the priority cases related to the 11 priority cases, there were hundreds of people laundering money, each abroad or multiple abroad, adding that Yunus asked officials to speed up their investigation into them.
Previously, it was well known that through the banking system, Hundi operated or over-invoice and insufficient funds were laundering money.
At yesterday's meeting, the NBR president shared an important finding: foreign universities also launder money through tuition fees.
Shafiqul said in one specific case, it was found that individuals transferred children with tuition fees of more than £4 billion.
