BFIU
Bangladesh Bank closing around 200 MFS accounts a day in Hundi crackdown: Governor Abdur Rouf
Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder on Monday (March 11, 2024) said that around 200 mobile financial services (MFS) accounts are closing each day due to their Hundi connection.
The central bank is checking rigorously trade transactions through LC and mobile financial services to prevent money laundering activities by any means, he said.
The governor said this in the opening ceremony of the money laundering prevention workshop held at the head office of the Criminal Investigation (CID), Bangladesh Police in the capital on Monday.
Rauf highlighted the steps taken to prevent money laundering since his joining the Central Bank as Governor.
He said, “When I joined Bangladesh Bank in 2022, there was a severe crisis of foreign exchange in the country. At that time took the first step to stop over-invoicing.”
Read more: Inflation, currency prime focus of BB’s next monetary policy
Again, money laundering occurs despite keeping the profit of export products abroad. Initiatives are also taken to prevent that, he mentioned.
The governor expressed the strong stand of the central bank on banning hundi.
He said that expatriates may send Tk500 to their family in the country, then he gives it to someone he knows abroad and asks him to give it to his family in the country.
That money remains abroad. In contrast, a representative in Bangladesh paid the amount. As earlier payment was made through home delivery, now it is done through MFS.
Read more: Entry-level women's recruitment doubles in banking sector, but board representation still lagging
Around 200 such accounts are being closed every day. Later some accounts were opened again with guarantees, permanent action was taken against some of them, he said.
Highlighting the context of the campaign against money changers, the governor said that USD $45 to $50 million transactions are done through money changers in the country every year. About $270 billion in transitions are made in the banking channel.
But despite a small fraction of transactions, when money changers hiked the dollar rate, many expatriates tried to hold on to remittances. This is how the dollar crisis was created, Rouf pointed out.
“That is why the campaign against money changers is ongoing. Also, avoid dealing in cryptocurrencies. It is completely illegal in our country,” said the BB Governor.
CID Chief and Additional IGP Muhammad Ali Mia in the chair, head of Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) Md. Masud Biswas also spoke at the function.
Read more: Bangladesh received $2.16 billion remittances in February, highest in fiscal
Tk 30,000cr loan from Islami Bank: HC asks S Alam Group to explain reports
The High Court today ordered the authorities concerned to probe into the much talked about and reported “loan scam” in three banks – Islami Bank, Social Islami Bank Ltd and First Security Islami Bank – and submit the report within next four months.
The HC bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Khizir Hayat passed the order after issuing a Suo Motu (voluntary) rule following newspaper reports.
The court directed Bangladesh Bank’s Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU), Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and Bangladesh Police’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to submit the probe report.
Read: Basic Bank loan scam: HC orders ACC to complete probe in 3 months
At the same time, the court ordered the authorities of these three banks to submit the list of bank officials involved in approving loans worth thousands of crores of taka.
The HC also issued a rule, asking why the inaction of the banks to take action against those responsible for approving loans worth thousands of crores and S Alam Group’s Tk 30,000 loan should not be declared illegal.
The rule also asked why no instructions should be given to take action against those responsible.
Read: Loan default case: 12 Pabna farmers get bail
Besides, the HC bench asked S Alam Group to explain the newspaper reports that said the company took Tk 30,000 crore from Islami Bank.
The court also set April 5 next year for the hearing and asked to submit the report after verifying the authenticity of the news published.
Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan for ACC and Deputy Attorney General AKM Amin Uddin Manik for the state were present in the court.
Read More: Loan default case: 12 Pabna farmers get bail
On November 24, a report was published in the daily Prothom Alo stating that an “unscrupulous group” had taken a loan of Tk 2,000 crore from Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited (IBBL) by opening two companies with fake addresses and papers.
In all, about Tk 7,000 crore loans have been approved from Islami Bank in various ways in the name of eight companies this year.
The maximum amount of loan, Tk 2,460 crore, was withdrawn from November 1 to 17, according to the newspaper report.
Read More: Women entrepreneurs repay loans in most cases: Commerce Minister
In the same way, the companies have withdrawn Tk 2,320 crore loan from Social Islami Bank Limited (SIBL) and the First Security Islami Bank.
As a result, the debt of the companies with interest to these three banks has increased to Tk 9,500 crores, it added.
Meanwhile, another report published in the New Age newspaper on November 29 said that S Alam Group alone has taken loan of Tk 30,000 crore from Islami Bank.
Read More: Payment of Hajj Finance Loan and DPS Instalment through Nagad
BFIU suspends cash out from 230 MFS accounts over transactions through hundi
Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) has suspended cash out from 230 accounts of Mobile Financial Service (MFS) for their involvement in the transfer of remittances through hundi, an unauthorised channel.
The BFIU has taken the initiative to prevent transfer of remittances through hundi and increase remittances through legal channel.
According to BFIU, the customers concerned will not be able to withdraw money from these accounts until further instructions, but money can be sent to these accounts.
Read: BFIU launched standalone website to strengthen awareness against money laundering
The suspended accounts are with bKash, Nagad, upay, and Rocket.
BFIU finds proof of illegal transactions by e-orange owner Sonia, her husband, brother
Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) has found proof of irregular transactions from the bank account of e-commerce site e-orange by the company’s owner Sonia Mehjabin, her husband Masukur Rahman and her brother sub-inspector (suspended) Sheikh Sohel Rana.
BFIU submitted a report to the High Court (HC) bench of Justices Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Khijir Hayat in this regard on Wednesday.
According to the report, Sonia in association with her husband, brother and uncle transferred Tk 18.56 crore from the bank account of e-orange to their personal bank accounts to buy properties.
“Instead of providing products to customers, Sonia and her associates took advance payments and embezzled the money, which is tantamount to fraudulence,” the report reads.
The report says that the transactions were made by opening a total of 13 accounts with different banks and financial institutions. Between January 2019 and September 2021, Tk 1111.45 crore had been deposited and Tk 1109.97 crore had been withdrawn from these accounts.
Most of the transactions happened between January 2020 and July 2021, the report added.
In the report, BFIU said that banks provided information of all the transactions made by e-orange to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police on June 23, 2021. On CID’s request, transactions in these bank accounts were suspended on August 25, 2021 following Section 23(1)(C) of Money Laundering Prevention Act 2012.
Read more: Reported suspicious financial transactions up by 62.32% in FY22: BFIU
The High Court on April 7, 2022 directed the Anti-Corruption Commission and Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit to investigate the allegation of money laundering and embezzling customers’ money against e-commerce platform E-orange and submit their report within four months.
The HC also wanted to know about the steps taken for bringing back the fugitive accused of e-commerce platform.
Read more: BFIU sought illegal money information from Swiss banks repeatedly: BB
It also issued a rule asking the government to explain as to why directives should not be given to the authorities concerned to take legal action against those involved in siphoning off money of the customers of e-commerce platform E-orange after investigation.
The customers of E-orange ordered products from the e-commerce platform by collecting e-ticket after clearing payments.
But the company did not provide the products to the respective customers.
In this circumstances, on April 3, 2021, some 547 customers filed a writ petition seeking return of Tk 77.46 crore and directives for investigations into the allegation of money laundering against the company.
Reported suspicious financial transactions up by 62.32% in FY22: BFIU
Generally, a suspicious transaction report (STR) means a formatted report of suspicious transactions or activities where there are reasonable grounds to believe that funds are the proceeds of predicate offense or may be linked to terrorist activity or the transactions do not seem to be in the usual manner.
Despite strengthening monitoring to stop money laundering, STR has increased in Bangladesh by 62.32 percent in the fiscal year 2021-22.
Despite strengthening monitoring to stop money laundering, suspicious transaction report (STR) has increased by 62.32 percent in the fiscal year 2021-22.
Read: BFIU gets 3 months to sign legal pacts with 10 countries to bring back black money
According to a report of Bangladesh Financial Intelligent Unit (BFIU), a concern of Bangladesh bank, 8571 STR occurred in FY22; it was 5280 in FY21. In a fiscal year, STR has increased by 3291 or 62.32 percent.
Earlier in FY20, there were 3675 suspicious transaction reports while in FY19 such transactions were 3573, BFIU’s latest annual report said.
BFIU presented the details of the report during a press conference at Bangladesh Bank on Monday. The central bank’s Executive Director and BFIU head Masud Biswas shared the information with media.
Read: BFIU summons WASA chief Taqsem’s bank account details
He said not all suspicious transaction reports are crimes. “If there is evidence of any crime, we take action,” he said.
So far, action has been taken against clients and related parties of many banks and financial institutions, he said.
According to the BFIU report, banks have submitted a maximum of 7999 suspicious transaction reports in Bangladesh in the entire financial year. In the previous financial year, the banks submitted 4495 reports. Financial institutions submitted 106 reports. Exchange houses have submitted 457 reports.
Read More: Banks instructed to campaign for bringing back laundered money
Central Bank Executive Director and Spokesperson GM Abul Kalam Azad, BFIU Director Rafiqul Islam, and Additional Director Kamal Hossain among others were present at the press conference.
BFIU gets 3 months to sign legal pacts with 10 countries to bring back black money
The High Court has given Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) three months to sign mutual legal assistance (MLA) pacts with 10 countries for obtaining information and proof required to recover black money stashed abroad.
An HC bench of justices Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Khijir Hayat passed the order on Wednesday (October 26, 2022).
Deputy attorney general AKM Amin Uddin Manik appeared for BFIU, while advocate Khurshid Alam Khan represented the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
Read: HC orders BFIU to form research cell to bring back laundered money
In a report submitted to the court on Tuesday, BFIU said that they had advised the Financial Institutions Division (FID) to sign MLA agreements with at least 10 countries to get necessary help in bringing back laundered money from abroad.
These countries are the United States of America (USA), the United Kingdom (UK), Canada, Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, Switzerland, Thailand and Hong Kong (China).
The report also said that "BFIU has asked Bangladesh Bank (BB) to recruit manpower for the proposed ‘Research Cell’ which will help in identifying money launderers and recovering the money."
Read Black money whitening got little response in FY 22: NBR data
According to the report, the recruitment process is currently ongoing.
The report added that the sixth meeting of the taskforce, led by the attorney general and formed to recover laundered money, took place on January 3, 2022.
The meeting was attended by representatives of the Home Ministry, the Foreign Ministry, FID, ACC, BFIU and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Bangladesh Police.
Read Finance bill 2022 passed with limits on proposal to whiten black money
It was decided at the meeting that urgent steps needed to be taken to identify the launderers and bring back black money stashed in foreign banks.
The High Court on August 31 ordered the head of Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit to form a research cell to prevent money laundering, bring back laundered money, monitor and control it.
Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit head Md Masud Biswas was also directed to submit a progress report regarding the formation of Research Cell by the next hearing set to be held on October 26.
On August 10, the Swiss ambassador in Dhaka Nathalie Chuard said that they have been providing the Bangladesh government with all information regarding deposits of Bangladeshi money in Swiss banks, "but no request has been submitted regarding any particular account".
On August 11, the High Court bench ordered the government and the Anti-Corruption Commission to explain why the government did not seek information of deposits of Bangladesh money stashed in Swiss banks.
On August 14, Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit was asked to submit a report in this regard in the affidavit form.
On August 21, following the High Court order, Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit's report was submitted stating that the information regarding deposits of 67 Bangladeshis in various Swiss banks was sought from the authorities concerned in Bern.
HC orders BFIU to form research cell to bring back laundered money
The High Court (HC) on Wednesday ordered the head of Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) to form a research cell to prevent money laundering, bring back laundered money, monitor and control it.
HC bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Khizir Hayat passed the order after fixing October 26 for next hearing.
BFIU head Md Masud Biswas was also directed to submit a progress report regarding the formation of Research Cell by the next hearing.
The court said only exchange of letters will not be effective to bring back the laundered money.
HC asked the BFIU head, “You must take necessary effective steps. You need to monitor this issue properly. You must have knowledge and sincerity to this effect. If India can do it, why can't we?”
The BFIU head appeared before the HC bench today (Wednesday) after being summoned on Tuesday.
He also offered unconditional apology for submitting an incomplete report regarding the information of money deposited by Bangladeshis to Swiss Banks that contains no name, address or position of the person who submitted the same, said Deputy Attorney General AKM Amin Uddin.
The court had observed that submitting such a report is like taking an action but without any responsibility.
Read: HC summons BFIU chief over 'incomplete report' on black money in Swiss banks
DAG Amin Uddin and Assistant Attorney General Anna Khanam Koli represented the state while advocate Khurshid Alam Khan appeared for the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) during the hearing.
On August 10, the Swiss ambassador in Dhaka Nathalie Chuard said that they have been providing the Bangladesh government with all information regarding deposits of Bangladeshi money in Swiss banks, "but no request has been submitted regarding any particular account".
On August 11, the HC bench ordered the government and the ACC to explain why the government didn’t seek information of deposits of Bangladesh money stashed in Swiss banks.
On August 14, BFIU was asked to submit a report in this regard in the affidavit form.
On August 21, following the HC order, BFIU’s report was submitted stating that the information regarding deposits of 67 Bangladeshis in various Swiss banks was sought from the authorities concerned in Bern.
But the Swiss authorities only provided the details of one individual in this regard which BFIU also submitted to the ACC, BFIU said in its report.
According to the report, the Swiss bank published its annual report on June 16 this year. On the following day, the Swiss authorities were requested to provide necessary information about the money deposited by Bangladeshi banks and individuals in various Swiss banks through Egmont Secure Web (ESW).
However, Bangladesh has not yet received any information. BFIU even asked FIEU for this information on June 17 last, it added.
Info of Bangladesh money in Swiss banks: BFIU submits report to HC
Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) on Sunday submitted a report to the High Court (HC) stating that the information regarding deposits of 67 Bangladeshis in various Swiss banks were sought from the authorities concerned of Switzerland.
But the Swiss authorities only provided the details of one individual in this regard which BFIU also submitted to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), BFIU said in their report.
The HC bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Khizir Hayat will hear the report Sunday.
BFIU is a member of the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs), an international network of FIUs.
According to the report, the Swiss Bank published its annual report on June 16 this year. On the following day, the Swiss authorities were requested to provide necessary information about the money deposited by Bangladeshi banks and individuals in various Swiss banks through Egmont Secure Web (ESW).
However, Bangladesh has not yet received any information. BFIU even asked FIEU for this information on June 17 last, it added.
On Thursday, the High Court ordered the government and the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to explain why the government didn’t seek information of deposits of Bangladesh money in the Swiss banks.
Read: BFIU sought illegal money information from Swiss banks repeatedly: BB
However, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said Bangladesh sought information on the deposits of Bangladeshi money in the Swiss banks but the Swiss side did not respond to the query.
Momen said this after his conversation on the issue with Bangladesh Bank Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder and Finance Secretary Fatima Yasmin on the same day.
The foreign minister said he advised the governor and the finance ministry to come up with the statements as confusion arose following some media reports quoting Ambassador of Switzerland to Bangladesh Nathalie Chuard.
said it is not true that Bangladesh did not seek information from Switzerland.
The Swiss envoy at the DCAB Talk on Wednesday said any estimate on deposits of Bangladeshi money in the Swiss banks is “purely speculative” and no conclusion can be drawn on the basis of media and other reports.
Responding to a question on information exchange on the issue, she said Switzerland is really committed to implementing international standards. In accordance with these international standards they can have some specific regulations and agreements also with the country to exchange this type of information, she said.
“So that is something should be developed,” said the ambassador, adding that they have been providing to the government all the information regarding how to reach an agreement on these matters but no request has been submitted regarding any particular funding.
BFIU launched standalone website to strengthen awareness against money laundering
Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU), central body for prevention of money laundering and terror funding, has launched its standalone website to strengthen anti-money laundering activities.
The BFIU Chief Md. Masud Biswas officially launched the website (https://www.bfiu.org.bd) at Jahangir Alam Conference Hall 3rd floor of Bangladesh Bank (BB) building on Monday.
Earlier, the web content of BFIU was displayed as a separate page on the website of Bangladesh Bank.
In Bangladesh, the prevention of Money Laundering Act was enacted in 2002 to curb money laundering. At the same time, to make these activities fruitful, money laundering prevention department was established by Bangladesh Bank in July 2002.
Also read: BFIU summons bank accounts update of 30 e-commerce companies
The department was described later in 2012 as a separate entity called Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit.
In the web portal brief descriptions, work of BFIU, Circulars and Guidance Notes issued from time to time have been included.
BFIU statement said through the portal, people of all walks of life will be able to lodge complaints with the BFIU, keeping their identities secret, if necessary.
In addition, the steps taken by BFIU to raise public awareness about money laundering and terrorist financing will be displayed in the website, which will help raise awareness among common people.
Also read: IFC inks deal with BFIU to develop eKYC infrastructure for fast-tracking financial Inclusion
Besides, web links with introductions from various international organizations such as APG, FATF, Egmont Group, Security Council and donor agencies are included, which will help keep stakeholders updated on other issues, including international regulations on money laundering and embezzlement.
On the other hand, the Financial Intelligence Unit of different countries will be able to easily inform the concerned international organizations about the updated steps taken by BFIU to prevent money laundering.
BFIU summons bank accounts update of 30 e-commerce companies
The Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU), a wing of the central bank, has summoned the bank accounts of 30 e-commerce companies including Daraj, Alesha Mart, Evaly and e-Orange.
The BFIU has recently asked banks for detailed bank information of accounts including their transactions.
A form has also been provided to send the information along with the BFIU letter.
Also read: BFIU seeks Dr. Yunus’ bank account details
The companies have been asked to provide the bank branch name, account name, number, type and date of opening, total deposit and withdrawal and current status of the bank where the transaction before this.
Earlier bank accounts of these e-commerce companies were summoned and frozen at different times.
Banks asked to report whether the account is active or closed.
Also read: BFIU seeks bank account details of 23 e-commerce platforms
Also on the bank account summons list are: Q Coom, Aladdin's Lamp, Boom Boom, Priyoshop, Dhamaka Shopping, Sirajganj Shop, Adian Mart, Walmart, Needs, Dalal Plus, 24 Ticketi, Thole, We Com, Infinity Marketing, Anand Bazar, Akash Nil. Bright Hash, Annex World Wide, Amar Bazzar, Astar Protik, Bangladesh Deal, Bari Dukan.com, Sreshdo.com, Ames BD, Nirapad and Alif World.
Many of these companies’ bank accounts have already been frozen. Earlier, Bangladesh Bank and intelligence agencies have taken information of transactions of e-commerce companies at different times.
Read BB asks banks to cut tax on service value of non-resident nationals