Prothom Alo
A large amount of the assets laundered abroad will be seized within the next six months, Bangladesh Bank governor Ahsan H Mansur said on Friday.
“A large amount of the assets laundered abroad will be seized within six months. We have been talking to various countries for this; sending letters to various countries and organisations. We are discussing with foreign legal firms. They will be recruited for this purpose. Already, we have talked to several wealth assessment firms and got their cooperation. Through this the wealth abroad will be seized within six months,” he said.
Ahsan H Mansur was addressing a media conference at the Chattogram office of the Bangladesh Bank on Friday.
The central bank organised the briefing session on its activities on money laundering prevention and contemporary banking.
The Bangladesh Bank governor at the media conference said that the attempt to bring back laundered money is a completely new initiative. This has to be done through maintaining communications with foreign countries, not through using local laws. But for this, he emphasised on knowing what has been sent to which countries.
According to him, after seizing the assets, the remaining process will be completed through the courts.
Ahsan H Mansur also talked about the inflation rate.
He remarked that earlier the inflation rate was shown lower through manipulations. Food inflation used to be shown as 9-10 per cent, which actually was 13-14 per cent.
The food inflation rate came down to 8-9 per cent in the last month while the overall inflation rate is in a somewhat comforting zone.
The central bank governor also hoped that the inflation rate could be brought down to 5 per cent or further below in the next year.
When the newspersons asked the Bangladesh Bank governor about the amount of money laundered from the country, he said, “Overall, I guess Tk 250,000-300,000 crore (2.5-3 trillion) have been laundered. This includes a big business conglomerate of Chattogram and the owner’s family. The amount of BEXIMCO’s money laundered is about Tk 50,000 crore (500 billion). This information is just about the large business groups. We are not going through the information on money laundering by smaller business groups.”
He also put emphasis on acquiring detailed information regarding the amount of laundered assets before starting the negotiation, otherwise there is a possibility of losing.
When Ahsan H Mansur was asked about the allegation of involvement of Bangladesh Bank officials in money laundering and taking actions against them, he said, “I’m not in favour of firing anyone from the job based on groundless information. We will take action if there is any specific information against anyone. We will take action if the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) or any intelligence agency provides information of the involvement of any Bangladesh Bank officials. Already actions are being taken against the people we have information.”
Bangladesh Bank’s Chattogram office deputy director Md Zobair Hossain moderated the media briefing where top officials of the central bank and its various units were present.
