Staff Reporter:
Huge properties have been found in the United Kingdom (UK) belonging to the close circle of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
The circle, included former ministers, politicians and businessmen, have an accumulated investment of approximate over 40 crore pound (approximately Tk 6,000 crore) or much more in the UK housing sec-tor, according to a finding of joint investigation by British newspaper The Observer and Berlin-based anti-corruption organization Transparency International.
The findings, published in The Guardian on Saturday, where investigators indicated that these properties were purchased with money laundered from Bangladesh through “hundi” instead of repaying bank loans.
Recently, the government, including the governor of Bangladesh Bank, has said that at least Tk 17 lakh crore has been laundered abroad from the country during the Hasina government. A significant amount of it has been destined for London.
However, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) Executive Director and Head of the Anti-Corruption Commission Reform Commission Dr Iftekharuzzaman said that although the Bangladesh Bank governor mentioned $17 billion was laundered from the banking sector, but the actual amount is much higher than it.
At a press conference in Dhaka in early November, he said that during the Awami League regime, influ-ential people closely associated with the government using the state facilities laundered $12 to $15 bil-lion each year under the guise of the banking sector and trade, although there is no real calculation of how much money was laundered during the tenure of Sheikh Hasina-led government.
Meanwhile, Dr. Debapriya Bhattacharya, the head of the White Paper Committee, formed to investigate irregularities and corruption in the economy, yesterday submitted its report to the Chief Advisor Profes-sor Muhammad Yunus.
The White Paper Committee report revealed that an average of US$ 16 billion was laundered abroad every year during the rule of Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted in a mass uprising by students and the pub-lic.
Shafiqul Alam, Chief Advisor’s Press Secretary, told that the white paper report, which analyzed each sector of the economy separately, showed how statistics have been manipulated to create a story of de-velopment. Although the story of development was being narrated, a grand ritual of looting was going on inside, he added.
