Bangladesh News

The government will soon promulgate a new anti-money laundering ordinance to confiscate and recover the assets siphoned out of the country.

Under the rule, the state or in some cases Bangladesh Bank (BB) will be able to sign memorandums of understanding, multilateral or bilateral contracts and conventions with other governments and organisations.

The law ministry has already vetted the draft prepared by the central bank and will send it for approval of the advisory council shortly, said sources.

If approved, the ordinance will allow the government to seek help from any country and assist investigative agencies to probe crimes linked to money laundering, confiscate laundered money and have recourse to law.

Besides allowing collection or exchange of relevant documents, intelligence and witnesses to locate, freeze or confiscate the assets obtained and sent abroad illegally, the rule will enable the countries concerned to share those recovered.

According to the draft ordinance, upon requests from the BB, the courts here can order organisations concerned to comply with instructions of a foreign court to confiscate or return the laundered funds or assets to where they belong.

In reply to an investigation agency’s application, the court can also order for attachment or freeze of the money at home and or abroad. “As a result, recovering smuggled money will become much easier,” the ordinance reads.

Similarly, the government can request other countries to sign contracts to implement orders of Bangladesh courts.

According to the draft ordinance, the courts will not take cognisance of any money laundering case without the sanction of Anti-Corruption Commission.

With the money laundering prevention rule in force, there will be no barrier for the central bank to seek cooperation from the financial intelligence units (FIUs) of other countries or provide them with similar support.

According to intelligence, huge sums have been siphoned off to Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States over the last few years.

But in absence of an appropriate anti-money laundering act, the government could not yet sign any deal with those countries to recover the money.

In the draft, the central bank had proposed provisions allowing it to demand information from 16 types of organisations. The law ministry however believes this [authority to seek information] might end up being misapplied and hamper activities of the organisations.

In response to the ministry’s opinion, the number of organisations was reduced to four. These are courier services, microcredit institutions, NGOs, and dealers and brokers of shares and securities.

The BB can fine these organisations up to Tk 5 lakh, cancel their licence and inform the authorities concerned in case of their violating the anti-money laundering ordinance.

In the draft, it has identified 17 “predicate offences” as linked to money laundering, but the law ministry said these could lead to unnecessary complications in enforcement of the ordinance and harassment of public.

The BB thinks money laundering originates from “predicate offences” and so those should be defined properly.

Its list of predicate offences includes corruption and bribery, forgery of currencies and documents, extortion, cheating, dealing in illegal arms and drug, smuggling, abduction for ransom, murder, sexual harassment, smuggling of local and foreign currencies and human trafficking.

“If the violator is a company, its owners, directors, manager, secretary or other officials and employees will be considered violators of the ordinance,” the draft reads.

Any of these individuals however will not be held responsible if they can prove the breach was beyond their knowledge or it took place despite their full efforts, it adds.