The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has teamed up with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to recover approximately Tk 100,000 crore, siphoned off during the Awami League government led by Sheikh Hasina.
An FBI team led Legal Attaché Robert Cameron and Supervisor Special Agents, arrived in Dhaka on Monday and held a meeting with ACC officials at the commission at Segunbagicha in the capita.
Sources at the ACC said that they discussed money laundering issues during the meetings. However, details on the discussion could not be known immediately.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, ACC Secretary Khorsheda Yasmeen said the ACC would take help from the United States’ FBI in recovering laundered money.
“The ACC will cooperate with the FBI on money laundering issues, if necessary. The commission has a money laundering wing. It will seek cooperation from everywhere required to bring the money back to the country,” she said.
She also said the FBI officials have promised to cooperate with the ACC's needs.
The ACC is taking various steps to recover money laundered from Bangladesh during the Awami League-led regime, she added.
A two-member delegation from the US' principal federal law enforcement agency held meetings with ACC officials at the headquarters of the anti-graft agency.
“A two-member team of the FBI visited the ACC office today as part of a courtesy call,” Khorsheda said.
“They wanted to know about the activities of our different wings. They've been informed on those matters,” said the secretary.
The FBI team, during their visit, held meetings with the money laundering and legal wings of the ACC, including the wing's director general and other senior officials, sources said.
Regarding stopping money laundering, Khorsheda said apart from the ACC, there are other institutions to prevent money laundering.
“Everyone is working on it. If they work successfully, hopefully money laundering will come to an end. We have our own procedures for recovering laundered money,” the secretary said.
Following the fall of Sheikh Hasina led government amid a mass upsurge, reports of over a trillion taka laundered by former government officials, lawmakers, and politicians have come to the fore.
In a press statement issued in late August, the Chief Adviser's Office said the amount of money "Audit works will begin to determine the money swindled by the corrupt people…(but) it can be assumed that the amount could be over Tk1 lakh crore."
"The corrupted people mainly laundered money to Dubai, Singapore and the USA. We have already communicated with the USA to bring back their foreign assets. A family of smugglers owns 500 to 600 homes in the UK. We will try to acquire their local assets and then we will bring back their foreign assets," Bangladesh Bank Governor Ahsan H Mansur said last week.
The ACC and the Central Investigation Department (CID) have launched investigations into such allegations.
