Govt for independent prosecution service to recover laundered money: Official

Changes are being made to deal with money laundering cases to recover runaway funds and detect crimes. 

“An Independent Prosecution Service of the state will be launched,” Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal was quoted as saying by an official of the finance division.

Recently, the Finance Minister talked about such a decision in a meeting of the National Coordinating Committee formed for formulating and implementing policies to prevent money laundering and financing of terrorism.

This work will be done jointly by the Financial Institutions Division and the Ministry of Law, Justice and the Parliamentary Affairs, officials said.

An official of the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit involved in the process said that the international organisation, Asia Pacific Group (APG), had gray-listed Bangladesh as a precaution a few years ago due to what it said ‘abnormal increase in money laundering.’

One of the few conditions of the APG at that time was to set up a prosecution service to handle money laundering cases.

Apart from this, the law minister had also ordered earlier about launching of this service. Besides, in 2019, in the 25th meeting of the National Coordinating Committee on Money Laundering, it was decided to launch this service for dealing with money laundering cases on behalf of the government. But, no developments followed. 

Highlighting its importance in the meeting, Financial Institutions Division Secretary Sheikh Mohammad Salim Ullah said the Anti-Corruption Commission has a separate prosecution service under which ACC cases are handled by their own lawyers.

As a result, the success rate of cases is high, he claimed.

But such success rate is not seen in other similar offences investigated by Police, Customs, Directorate of Intelligence and Investigation, National Board of Revenue, Directorate of Narcotics Control and Bangladesh Security and Exchange Commission. If an independent prosecution service could be launched, such crimes could be curbed and laundered money recovered, Salim Ullah said.

Debprasad Debnath, former advisor to the Central Bank’s Financial Intelligence Unit said that launching an Independent Prosecution Service in handling money laundering cases is a basic task for any welfare state. It would be good for the state and benefit the case if it can be constituted, he pointed out. The incumbent state-side is managing these cases by appointing an Attorney General.

But after or before a certain time, he may not be there. He should not be held accountable for this, Debnath added.

As a result, problems arise in case management. When a separate attorney service or independent prosecution service could be introduced, the speed of dealing with the cases will increase. Because, the responsibility and accountability of the judge assigned there will be with the state, BFIU former advisor added .

Meanwhile, the report of Global Financial Integrity shows that every year an average of Tk 64,000 crore is being smuggled out of the country.

According to the agency, the amount of money laundered in 5 years (2016-20) is Tk 3 lakh 20 thousand crores. This money went to 10 countries including Singapore, Malaysia, Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates and Thailand. These monies are being smuggled under the cover export-import documents manipulations and hundi.