The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on Tuesday in a meeting with the Anti-Corruption Commission's (ACC) official promised to provide full-fledged cooperation to the commission in preventing money laundering and recovering laundered assets from Bangladesh.
A five-member delegation of the UN agency met with the ACC officials at the anti-graft agency's headquarters to strengthen cooperation on recovering embezzled funds, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The UNODC works against trafficking and abuse of illicit drugs, crime prevention and criminal justice, international terrorism, and political corruption.
Marco Teixeria, South Asia head of UNODC, led the delegation while the ACC informed the UN agency of its ongoing activities.
Sources said there was a detailed discussion on the cooperation of UNODC to increase the capacity of the ACC, especially in the field of prevention of money laundering and recovery of stolen assets.
The meeting focused on enhancing ACC's ability to prevent money laundering and recover stolen funds, with the UNODC offering its full support in these efforts.
The UNODC delegation reaffirmed their commitment to assisting the ACC in achieving these goals through continued cooperation and technical support.
The ACC has begun its work to bring back the money laundered abroad during the now overthrown Awami League's rule between 2009 and 2024.
The national anti-graft agency is taking assistance from local and international agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States, in this regard.
The ACC's meeting with the UNODC delegation comes a day after it held a meeting with the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
After the meeting, ACC Secretary Khorsheda Yasmeen on Monday told reporters that the anti-graft agency would get help from the FBI to recover laundered money.
"The ACC will cooperate with the FBI on money laundering issues if necessary. The commission has a money laundering [prevention] wing. It will seek cooperation from everywhere required to bring the money back to the country," the ACC Secretary said.
She also said the FBI officials have promised to cooperate with the ACC's needs.
In the wake of the ouster of the Awami League-led government, reports of over Tk 1 lakh crore laundered by former government officials, lawmakers, and politicians have come to the fore.
In a press statement issued in late August, the Chief Adviser's Office said the amount of money "Audit works will begin to determine the money swindled by the corrupt people…(but) it can be assumed that the amount could be over Tk 1 lakh crore."
"The corrupt people mainly laundered money to Dubai, Singapore and the USA. We have already communicated with the USA to bring back their foreign assets. A family of smugglers owns 500 to 600 homes in the UK. We will try to acquire their local assets and then we will bring back their foreign assets," Bangladesh Bank Governor Ahsan H Mansur said last week.
Among the big fish involved in allegedly laundering the money are Salman F Rahman, S Alam Group, former social welfare minister Nuruzzaman Ahmed, former state minister for civil aviation and tourism Md Mahbub Ali, former member of parliament (MP) Akhtaruzzaman Babu, and others.
The ACC and the Central Investigation Department (CID) have launched investigations into such allegations.
The commission was able to recover approximately S$20.41 lakh (Singapore dollars) in 2012, laundered allegedly by Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia's younger son, Arafat Rahman Koko.
But the commission, later, failed to bring back any laundered money from abroad in the past 12 years.
According to Washington-based Global Financial Integrity, on an average US$753.37 crore is laundered every year from Bangladesh through international trade.
A GFI 2021 report estimated that $8.27 billion was laundered annually on average between 2009 and 2018.
