Money laundering, return of assets no less a responsibility for host countries: TIB

Transparency International Bangladesh today called upon governments of the host countries of Bangladesh’s laundered money like UK, USA, Canada, Dubai and Singapore to proactively identify and freeze any illegal assets owned by Bangladeshi nationals or entities in their respective jurisdictions.
The anti-graft watchdog also called upon governments to take immediate actions to dismantle and hold to account syndicates facilitators of accumulation of money and wealth through illicit transfers.
In a statement, TIB Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman also urged host countries to cooperate with the government of Bangladesh to start and expedite the process of repatriation of the stolen assets and hold the money launderers to account through the available international processes including mutual legal assistance and technical support.
Host countries should do this as part of their international commitments and responsibility, he added.
TIB also called upon governments to contribute to building the necessary professional and international capacity of relevant Bangladeshi state agencies, especially Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU), Criminal Investigation Department (CID), National Board of Revenue (NBR) and the Attorney General’s Office.
It urged them to collaborate and coordinate with other above-mentioned host countries of Bangladesh’s laundered money to take similar actions.
“The burden of responsibility to prevent, control and bring back laundered money lies mainly on Bangladesh’s shoulders, but it is also no less a responsibility of countries or territories where the laundered money from Bangladesh have been invested and thereby helped the host economies,” said the statement.
TIB said the richer and so-called developed countries are the main destinations and beneficiaries of the lion’s share of Bangladesh’s laundered money.
Iftekharuzzaman said, “Conventional hosts of money laundering like UK, USA and proverbial Switzerland have been joined in recent couple of decades by Canada, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Middle East countries like UAE, especially Dubai and even many offshore island territories as attractive hosts of Bangladeshi laundered money.”
In each destination of illicit transfers, there are powerful syndicates of highly skilled law firms, trust companies, offshore specialists, real estate agents, accountants, regulatory experts, and banking and financial services companies that facilitate the secret deals, he added.
These syndicates have systematically strengthened the demand side over the years, and by providing safe and lucrative incentives to our money launderers contributed to flows of investments in host economies in multiple sectors, especially real estate, banking and luxury consumption, he said.
In some cases, these are outcomes of relevant government policies or policy loopholes, whether deliberate or not, the statement continued.
Many such countries have been persistently keeping provisions to invest laundered money by various means like trusts, real estate, investment passports, etc.
If not by policy provisions or loopholes in policies, enforcement deficiencies have helped creation of havens for the money laundering facilitators who have been systematically incentivising money launderers of Bangladesh, he also stated.