Bangladesh Bank governor Ahsan H Mansur on Thursday said that two approaches — one involves filing civil cases — had been planned for accelerating the recovery of the money stolen by different individuals and business groups linked to the ousted Awami League regime. Â
‘One approach is to file civil cases for less serious offences,’ Mansur told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· over phone on Thursday from the United Kingdom he is visiting as part of the interim government’s efforts to bring back the laundered money.
Criminal cases should be filed only for the matters linked not only to smuggling money but also to criminal activities, added the BB governor.
The interim government that assumed power on August 8, 2024, three days after the fall of authoritarian Awami League regime in a mass uprising, has attached importance to recovering the stolen money.
The country lost $16 billion annually on average between 2009 and 2023 because of the illicit fund flow amid systemic tax evasion, misuse of exemptions and poorly managed public finances under the AL regime, according to the report submitted in December 2024 by a committee on the White Paper on the State of Bangladesh Economy.
The interim government led by chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus has opened on a priority basis 11 investigations into various corruption allegations against previously politically-connected business groups and families, including the deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s.
Summit Group, Beximco Group, Bashundhara Group, S Alam Group, Orion Group, Gemcon Group, Nabil Group, NASSA Group and Sikder Group are among the business groups facing the investigations.
Noting that the Anti-Corruption Commission is the leading agency to file and investigate the money laundering cases, the BB governor said that the ACC action should be evidence-based.
Earlier on the day, the BB governor told a London-based daily that he aimed to raise as much as $100 million to finance future international litigations to reclaim funds from business and political figures tied to the ousted AL regime.
Litigation funding firms pay for the costs of pursuing civil lawsuits, including lawyer fees and court costs, in return for a share of any settlement or court award or a pre-agreed sum if the case succeeds, he added.
Attorney general Md Asaduzzaman said he was not aware of the statement by the BB governor.
An ACC lawyer said on condition of anonymity that running civil cases along with criminal cases would not be a viable option for the current efforts to bring back stolen money.
He said that the criminal cases would be shelved in that situation.
The lawyer, however, said that there was an option of outside-court-settlement under civil cases.
The chief adviser who is also visiting the UK reportedly asked for more enthusiastic support from the UK authorities to trace and reclaim funds.
In May, the UK’s National Crime Agency froze luxury assets worth almost £90 million belonging to two members of a family closely associated with the ousted Awami League government, according to a report by UK’s daily The Guardian.Â
The frozen assets were owned by Shahriar Rahman Shayan, son of Salman F Rahman, former private industry and investment adviser to deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina, and Ahmed Shahriar Rahman, a cousin of Shayan.
The same UK agency has frozen properties owned by Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, Bangladesh’s former land minister, in the UK, according to a report by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit on June 11.
The BB governor said that the number of frozen assets in foreign soil owned by oligarchs from Bangladesh would increase in the coming days.
He said that the proposed two approaches were realistic as stolen money recipient countries should not be overburdened with criminal cases.
The UK authorities have already brought the matter to his notice unofficially, added the BB governor.
On September 29, 2024, the national taskforce in Bangladesh on repatriating stolen assets was reconstituted with the BB governor replacing the attorney general as its head.
The attorney general had been steering the taskforce since 2013 but without any major breakthrough in recovering stolen assets.
Data show that Bangladesh repatriated about $2.6 million from Singapore between 2012 and 2013, and sent back $1.58 million to the United Kingdom between 2010 and 2015 in relation to money laundering.
Referring to the ‘State of the tax justice report 2020’, the World Bank reported in April 2024 that about $3.15 billion outflows from Bangladesh occurred annually through illegal offshore accounts.
In Malaysia, Bangladeshi citizens occupy the fifth position in the list of participants in its ‘Malaysia My Second Home’ programme after the China, Australia, South Korea and Japan nationals.
Until January 2024, as many as 3,604 Bangladeshi citizens had set up ‘second home’ in Malaysia without taking any permission from the Bangladesh Bank.
The illegal outflow of foreign currency excludes the $80 million heist from the Bangladesh Bank in 2016 by suspected hackers who laundered the money at casinos in the Philippines.
Only $15 million of the stolen fund was recovered later following a Philippines court order.