The government does not have an account of how much money being siphoned out of the country through various manipulations every year. The authorities become alert when media run reports on money laundering by collecting information from any foreign organisation or when there is a dollar-crisis in the market. Government policymakers continue to talk about taking “tough action” against the launderers. After that everything continues or is allowed to continue as before.
Following the dollar crisis, the government launched a crackdown on illegal money exchange institutions. Bangladesh Bank and Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police claim that 700 illegal money exchange institutions across the country are laundering money through Hundi.
Law enforcement agency has also filed cases against the owners of three money exchange firms in Dhaka on charges of laundering money abroad. One of the owners was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment in a case. He was arrested at Shahjalal International Airport while laundering Tk 120 million.
How did these 700 illegal money exchanges continue to operate for so many years when only 235 money exchange companies are legal in the country? And the money exchanges, which are doing business with the approval of the government, their integrity is also not tested. Irony is that the money siphoned out of the country using “other means” is several times more than the amount laundered through money exchanges.
Many unscrupulous traders launder money by understating the price of export goods and overstating the price of import goods. Professor of economics at Dhaka University Saima Haque Bidisha told the BBC that when money is laundered from the country, the price of the dollar inflates artificially and the country’s currency becomes unstable. Washington-based research organisation Global Financial Integrity says that in 2015, about US $6 billion, that is, about Tk 500 billion, was laundered through trade manipulation.
According to the annual report published by the central bank of Switzerland in the middle of this year, Tk 53.67 billion was deposited in various SWISS banks by Bangladeshis in 2019.
Scattered raids against money exchange companies cannot stop money laundering. Continuous surveillance should be maintained. In the budget of the current fiscal year, the government has announced special benefits for bringing back the money laundered abroad. But they should know that once the money is siphoned out of the country, it is very difficult to bring it back. Rather, the government should take measures so that no one can launder money abroad.
According to the case filed by the CID, the former leader of Jubo League Ismail Hossain Chowdhury alias Samrat has smuggled around Tk 2 billion in Singapore and Malaysia. He was “released” before the trial of that case.
There is ample reason to doubt the government’s motive about anti-money laundering campaign due to the contradictory decision of crackdown against the money exchanges on the one hand, and the exemption of identified money launderers on the other.
Everyone expects those who are charged for money laundering should be given due punishment. At the same time, those who managed to escape by laundering money through various manipulations, efforts to detain them should also be continued. Money laundering will never stop if the small offenders are caught and the big fishes are released.