How money laundered by PK Halder will be recovered

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is mulling bringing back the money laundered abroad by former NRB Global Bank Managing Director (MD) Prashanta Kumar Halder, better known as PK Halder, through a Mutual Legal Assistant Request (MLAR).

ACC officials say they have started the process to get the money back from India since the country’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) statement proved that Halder laundered money to India.

Talking to The Business Post, a senior ACC official, seeking anonymity, said the ED statement stated that Halder owned assets in India too. “Now we are collecting information regarding the wealth, bank accounts and addresses of the properties he owned in India.

“When we are done, we will write to the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) to send an MLAR to India to bring the money back,” said the official.

Speaking at a press briefing at the anti-graft body’s Segunbaghicha office on Monday, acting ACC secretary Sayeed Mahbub Khan also confirmed that they will write to BFIU to help gather the information they need.

In 2013, the ACC had recovered money that was laundered to Singapore by former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s younger son Arafat Rahman Koko in line with laws and utilizing the MLAR facilities.

Meanwhile, the High Court has fixed Tuesday for hearing a rule, issued on November 18, 2020, on bringing back Halder to Bangladesh.

The MLAR procedure

Experts say bringing back the money laundered abroad by former Reliance Finance Limited MD Halder will take a long time since Bangladesh will have to follow a lengthy legal process.

Senior Supreme Court lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan, who has conducted many money laundering cases for the ACC, said India will be required to submit to Bangladesh a report on Halder’s arrest in line with the MLAR or a government-to-government protocol.

If Bangladesh gets information about properties Halder bought abroad using foreign channels with the laundered money, ACC then can seek a court order in Bangladesh to confiscate them, he said.

If the court orders to confiscate the properties abroad, ACC will send the order’s copies to the relevant countries, said the lawyer.

The court will also be required to ask the relevant countries to send the laundered money back to Bangladesh, he added.

Extradition

About the extradition of Halder, who is accused in multiple cases after he swindled over Tk 10,200 crore and laundered most of it aboard, Khurshid Alam said it could take three to six months to bring Halder back to Bangladesh from India in line with the MLAR.

Meanwhile, the National Central Bureau (NCB), the regional office of Interpol in Dhaka, has requested its Indian counterpart to extradite Halder and five others who were arrested in West Bengal on Saturday.

Acting ACC secretary Sayeed Mahbub told reporters that the NCB Bangladesh sent an email to NCB India after learning about their arrests and urged them to extradite the six since a red notice was issued against Halder.

In line with an arrest warrant for Halder and other legal procedures, Interpol issued the red notice in January 2021.

“Our legal efforts are underway,” he said, adding that the ACC will maintain communication with the Bangladesh High Commission in India and send a letter to the Foreign Ministry to expedite the process.

Following their arrests on Saturday, Halder and the five others were also remanded by a special court in West Bengal.

According to ED, all these Bangladeshi nationals had managed to float companies in India using fraudulent identities and even purchased properties in West Bengal.