About 22,000 MFS accounts closed

Hundi Online Gambling

Staff Correspondent: Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) has closed 21,725 mobile accounts (Mobile Financial Service-MFS) for their involvement in online gambling and hundi.
An official related to BFIU confirmed this information. Most of these accounts are development, cash and rocket. MFS organizations have also been warned not to engage in such transactions in the future.
According to BFIU, 371 online gaming and betting transactions, 91 transactions related to online forex trading and 413 transactions related to cryptocurrency have been collected in the nine months of this year. These data are being analyzed and sent to the law enforcement agencies.
BFIU also said that 21,725 personal accounts have been suspended so far on suspicion of involvement in online gambling, hundi.
Besides, BFIU has sent a list of 814 websites, 159 apps and 442 social media pages and links related to illegal hundi, gaming, betting and crypto to the law enforcement agencies. BFIU has sent details of 21 money changers and their 39 bank accounts to the Criminal Investigation Department of the police.
BFIU presented these facts in a meeting with anti-money laundering compliance officers of commercial banks at the head office of Bangladesh Bank. In the meeting held on September 26, the chief officer of Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) Masud Biswas presided. In the meeting, Deputy Chief Officer of BFIU AFM Shahinul Islam, Director of BFIU, Rafiqul Islam and Md. Arifuzzaman and chief and deputy chief anti-money laundering enforcement officers of all commercial banks were present.
In the meeting, taking loans in the name of paper institutions or converting non-funded facilities into funded facilities and creating forced loans, money laundering under the guise of foreign trade, online forex trading, gaming, betting, digital hundi, investing in virtual currency or cryptocurrency through cryptocurrency exchange platforms. Contemporary risks are discussed in detail. Besides, he also urged to increase the awareness of the wage earners from their own position regarding sending remittance through the banking channel in a legitimate way.
Head of BFIU, Masud Biswas said that criminals and money launderers should be aware that they cannot use the banking system to commit any crime.
Mentioning that BFIU will take a strict stance on financial crimes, he said, strict action will be taken against those who are found to have weaknesses in the compliance system.