A delegation of the European Union (EU) has pledged to assist the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in recovering Bangladesh’s stolen assets and money from Europe.
ACC Director General (DG-Prevention) Md Akhtar Hossain shared the development in response to questions from reporters after a meeting with a four-member EU delegation on Tuesday.
He said that the ACC has so far sent 71 Mutual Legal Assistance Requests (MLARs) to recover laundered money from abroad and received responses for 27 of them. They will be able to provide proper information regarding the laundered money later.
“Today, we sought the EU delegation's cooperation on this matter during our discussions,” he added.
Akhtar further said that they presented the obstacles in the ACC's investigation and inquiry to the EU delegation. They sought the EU’s cooperation in recovering the funds that had been embezzled or laundered from Bangladesh to those countries.
During the meeting, they mentioned the names of the countries involved. The EU delegation expressed its commitment to fully cooperate with the ACC.
The EU team was led by Michel Krejza, Head of the EU Development Cooperation, and included Program Manager of Inclusive Governance Pablo Padin Perez, Nader Tanja and Kishower Amin.
The ACC team was led by ACC Chairman Mohammad Moinuddin Abdullah and included Secretary Khorsheda Yasmeen, Akhtar, and Directors Abdullah Al Zahid and Golam Shahriar.
Previously, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the United States, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank held meetings with ACC regarding various issues, including the recovery of embezzled and laundered funds.
These meetings focused on the investigation of corruption-related allegations, particularly in areas such as money laundering, cybercrime, forensic analysis in financial transactions, trade-based money laundering, interrogation strategies for criminals, asset recovery, financial crimes facilitated by information technology, mutual legal assistance, and information exchange, among other issues.
