BFIU officials help in money laundering

Staff Correspondent: Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) is responsible for preventing money laundering. But it could not stop it, on the contrary, the newly resigned head of BFIU, Masud Biswas, has been accused of taking bribes in various ways besides helping in money laundering. The angry officials of Bangladesh Bank described sensational allegations in a written complaint to the media on Monday. According to those concerned, he played the role of eater by being a protector. In a word, he kept all the doors of money laundering open. As a result, a huge amount of money is smuggled out of the country.
Aggrieved officials claim that BFIU should be restructured. There should be someone who can take effective measures to prevent money laundering. At the same time, he has the honest courage to take exemplary action against those involved, including bringing back the money smuggled abroad.
When asked about this, the executive director of TIB Iftekharuzzaman told that only resigning after committing a crime will not get you through. He must be brought to justice. There is nothing to say if the organization which is supposed to prevent money laundering is helping money laundering. It is very scary. The new government will surely investigate these allegations properly and bring the guilty to justice. At the same time, he felt that BFIU should be completely reformed.
In the written complaint of the aggrieved officials of Bangladesh Bank, the recently resigned BFIU chief Masud Biswas has facilitated the irregularities by taking bribes from top corrupt officials at various times. Helped in money laundering.
It is further mentioned that in 24 major cases (Hallmark, Bismillah and others) in the case of money laundering of Tk 92,000 crore through financial scams, the Cash Transaction Report (CTR) was not verified by the BFIU. Besides, he has wasted money by pressurizing the banks by organizing training programs, organizing various unnecessary events and traveling abroad. In the past few years, there have been allegations of taking financial benefits from BFIU by conducting an average of 8-10 major investigations per year. In this case, hundreds of investigation cases of the last few years are demanded to be re-investigated. All in all, due to these irregularities, BFIU has gradually become an ineffective institution, it is also mentioned in the charge sheet.
According to the chargesheet, the BFIU chief took unethical benefits from a Chittagong-based business group and Abdul Qadir Mollar’s Thermex Group, but did not take any measures to prevent the money laundering even after being informed about the money laundering abroad. Even in Zeenat Enterprise’s smuggling case, he covered up the case in exchange of a bribe of 50 lakh rupees. Besides, BFIU did not take any action by taking any action in this regard even though the investigation of the serious irregularities in the transfer of loan money granted in favor of different institutions of Thermex Group through various branches of UCB Bank to some institutions related to the interests of the chairman of the bank was caught. Besides, Masud Biswas illegally took a flat of 2000 square feet as bribe from a private bank while being an observer.
It is also said in the complaint that the concerned bank has given a financial benefit of Tk 400 crore by exceeding the single customer credit limit in favor of Rupali Bank customer Dolly Construction. Even though the matter was caught in the investigation of BFIU, Masood Biswas did not take proper action by accepting bribe. In addition, National Bank’s customer Shantana Enterprises, including some institutions, distributed about Tk 1500 crore from the bank’s 4 branches without the approval of the head office. Masud Biswas took illegal benefits from the branch managers and made arrangements to exonerate the concerned officers of the bank. Apart from this, Saad-Musa Group has uncovered irregularities, corruption and irregularities of various banks during the verification of the irregularities of the loans received from several banks, but he did not take any action by taking illegal benefits through official power.
The complaint further states that against the Chua debit instruction of BRAC Bank customer Sajida Foundation, $82,416 was laundered in 2021 in favor of FMO NV INL MASSIF, customer of ING Bank. Masud Biswas covered up the irregularity in return for receiving illegal benefits from the bank. In addition, Masud Biswas illegally exerted influence to send a remittance of $100 million in favor of Shirin Spinning Mills, a customer of Dhanmondi branch of Jamuna Bank, and to grant a bank guarantee of Tk 1000 crores in the name of Tiger IT, a customer of NRBC Bank, a blacklisted company of the World Bank. Besides, he accepted money from related institutions to travel abroad to Italy to cover up financial scams in Market Systems and Cash.
When asked about the overall allegations, former head of BFIU Masud Biswas told, “I am not involved in any wrongdoing.” Now maybe because of the existing situation, everyone is making these complaints.
Incidentally, a department called ‘Anti Money Laundering Department or AML’ was formed under Bangladesh Bank in 2002 to prevent money laundering. Later, BFIU was formed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2012 for further work. But even after an era, the institution could not show any efficiency in preventing money laundering. On the contrary, allegations of irregularities were raised against the former head of the organization.