Friday, March 23rd, 2007A Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) has been formed with technical assistance from the US to combat financial crimes and retrieve assets and money kept overseas by graft suspects. Established within the framework of the amended Money Laundering Prevention Ordinance, 2007, the unit will operate as part of the Bangladesh Bank's (BB) Anti-Money Laundering Department (AMLD).The United States government has already provided the department with software essential to analyse and detect financial crimes.Besides, it will send a consultant next month to train officials of the FIU that will consist of personnel from AMLD, the Attorney General's Office and the ...
(read more) Wednesday, February 28th, 2007Rescuers recovered another body from the 11-storey BSEC Bhaban in Karwan Bazar yesterday, raising the death count to four while the investigators were yet to find out the cause of Monday's devastating blaze.Anwar Hossain, 25, a private security agency employee who was working for ntv, might have died from suffocation, failing to find an exit, some rescue workers told The Daily Star.Security personnel sealed off the site to keep off the curious onlookers.Meantime, Director General of Fire Service and Civil Defence Rafiqul Islam yesterday confirmed that the fire had started on the first floor but failed to pinpoint the cause. ...
(read more) Saturday, January 27th, 2007The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) yesterday took over the criminal case filed against Orion Group chief Obaidul Karim, and 23 former and incumbent officials of the Oriental Bank for misappropriating Tk 596.44 crore.Assistant Superintendent of Police (CID) Momin Hossain collected the case docket from Sub-Inspector (SI) of Tejgaon Police Station Monirul Islam last evening. The case was filed on Thursday.Meanwhile, the police raided the houses of the accused in the early hours yesterday, but found none."Thirteen special teams comprising forces drawn from 13 police stations raided the houses of all the 24 accused," SI Monirul told The Daily Star ...
(read more) Monday, January 22nd, 2007Investigation into the August 21 grenade attack on an Awami League (AL) rally further dips into mystery following a news that quoted a commander of Assam's insurgent group Ulfa as saying their men made the attack "with the help of Bangladeshi intelligence agencies".The news released by a Bangladeshi private news agency from Guwahati said Ulfa commander Pallav Saikia confessed that his group was behind the attack on the AL rally at Bangabandhu Avenue in 2004.The new claim has created controversy and raised questions about its authenticity. It also contradicted a few previous disclosures made by the local investigators since the ...
(read more) Saturday, January 20th, 2007The probe into the smuggling of 75.5kg heroin to the UK has come to a halt as the investigators have not yet been able to collect relevant evidence from that country.The investigators have been apparently idle for more than six months, waiting for the British government's permission for visiting that country to collect the pieces of evidence for the two cases filed with the Motijheel and Sutrapur police stations.The foreign ministry wrote a letter to the British High Commission in Dhaka last July, requesting it to take steps for the Bangladeshi investigators' trip to the UK to carry out further ...
(read more) Thursday, September 21st, 2006The investigation officer (IO) of the Ramna Batamul carnage case yesterday told a Dhaka court that an activist of banned Harkatul Jihad (Huji) gave important information about the bomb blasts.Mahmud Azhar alias Mamun of Gangni in Meherpur district, an accomplice of Mufti Abdul Hannan, operations commander of Harkatul Jihad's Bangladesh chapter, was shown arrested in the Ramna Batamul carnage case and remanded on September 14 for seven days.Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Inspector Abu Hena Mohammad Yusuf, also IO of the case, said he interrogated Mamun intensively the seven-day remand where he gave important information about the bomb explosion.Mamun is also ...
(read more) Wednesday, September 20th, 2006To revive the government's bid to check financial crimes and money laundering, a secret meeting took place between the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and Bangladesh side recently.A DOJ delegation met with high officials of the ministries of finance and home, National Board of Revenue, Bangladesh Bank (BB), Attorney General's Office and Criminal Intelligence Department (CID) at Cox's Bazar.Bangladeshi officials appraised the DOJ officials of the status of the 45 money laundering cases, and discussed the investigation process and how punitive measures could be taken against those who would be found guilty of financial crimes.The US side at the ...
(read more) Monday, September 11th, 2006Mufti Abdul Hannan, operations commander of banned Harkatul Jihad's (Huji) Bangladesh chapter, was shown arrested in the Ramna Batamul carnage and placed on an eight-day remand yesterday. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) produced Hannan before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's (CMM) Court, Dhaka, at around 1:30pm in tight security and submitted a petition for showing him arrested in the case.The CID also submitted another petition for placing him on a 10-day remand for interrogation in connection with the blasts that left 10 people dead and several others injured on April 14, 2001.In the forwarding report placed before the court ...
(read more) Saturday, August 26th, 2006The government has yet to bring any specific charges against the 27 militants arrested during a training session at a Qawami madrasa-cum-militant den in Mymensingh on August 2.Legal experts fear the militants may soon get bail from court, as the police did not even file a General Diary (GD) against them.So far they have only taken 11 arrestees on remand for quizzing under Section 54.Earlier on different occasions a good number of militants including the top brass had been released on bail as they were produced before the courts under the same section.The Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) captured the 27 ...
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