Bangladesh News

More than 25 bigwigs including some ministers of the last BNP-led four-party alliance government and some Hawa Bhaban people were also allegedly involved in the raging scandal of laundering over $200 million, paid by foreign businesses in kickbacks, sources in the Attorney General’s Office said yesterday.

Former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s younger son Arafat Rahman Koko’s alleged involvement in the scandal has already been being discussed internationally for about a month now.

From now on a team of FBI investigators dealing with the matter might also be visiting Bangladesh frequently for legal and other assistance from different government agencies, in connection with the probe into the money laundering which has already become an international scandal, sources in the US embassy said.

The government agencies which are expected to help the investigation are the Attorney General’s Office, Anti-corruption Commission (ACC), Ministry of Finance, Bangladesh Bank, and the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Two of the people of erstwhile ‘alternative power centre’ Hawa Bhaban, who were allegedly involved in the racket, are Khaleda Zia’s elder son Tarique Rahman, and his business partner and close friend Giasuddin Al Mamun.

The sources, however, did not confirm who the other involved Hawa Bhaban cronies are.

Although some newspapers published reports comprising names of some of the former ministers and their wives, the government remained tight-lipped about it till yesterday.

The sources in the Attorney General’s Office also said some of the accused honchos’ names were recently published in newspapers.

Meanwhile, new Attorney General Advocate Mahbubey Alam yesterday suggested building mutual understandings with the foreign countries to get the laundered money back to Bangladesh following recovery.

Talking to The Daily Star yesterday evening, Mahbubey Alam said, “If mutual understandings are reached with the countries where the money is deposited, then the procedure for recovery can be determined.”

A team from Bangladesh could be sent to those countries to recover the money, but the decision rests on the government, he said.

His office will provide all kinds of legal assistance to the government to prevent money laundering and to get back the state’s money laundered to foreign countries, he added.

State machineries including the Bangladesh Bank, customs authorities, and the Attorney General’s Office will have to work together in order to identify how money is laundered, how those can be recovered, and how money laundering can be prevented, the attorney general said.

Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Barrister Safique Ahmed told The Daily Star that the government will act according to the advice of the Attorney General’s Office in order to recover the laundered money.

Meanwhile, immediate past attorney general Salah Uddin Ahmed, who dealt with a visiting foreign delegation in connection with the investigation till yesterday, denied media reports claiming he had said the amount of the recovery is likely to be one billion dollars.

“I told the media on Monday that the delegation traced $200 million dollars of the laundered money, and the amount might even rise upon further investigation,” Salah Uddin said.

Meanwhile, FBI’s Washington Field Office is investigating the cases in cooperation with Bangladesh law enforcing agencies.

US embassy sources said FBI officials work independently and usually do not discuss with any embassy official anything related to the investigations. According to the embassy sources the delegation was still in Dhaka yesterday.

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) of the US makes it illegal to bribe foreign officials to get business contracts. The US government is willing to help the Bangladesh government recover the laundered money under that law.