Dhaka, Wednesday, October 28, 2009 - 10:12am The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is very selective in its drive against money launderers and corrupt elements, as most of the big fishes are yet to be netted. The ACC on Monday filed a money-laundering case against Tarique Rahman and his friend and business partner Giasuddin Al Mamun. Revival of cases against a few people, who exercised power during the BNP-led four party alliance government is also in the process, sources in the ACC said.
But some corrupt people, who were sued for money laundering and corruption during the anti-corruption drive of the caretaker government are still so influential that the Commission is apparently going slow to deal with them. A senior official of the anti-graft body however, told the New Nation that it would soon investigate and file cases against a number of persons, corruption charges against whom are pending with the ACC.
Col Hanif Iqbal, Director General of the ACC, said on the other hand, that he was unable to say anything about the next steps to be taken by the Commission to curb corruption. Responding to queries about the ACC's slow progress to net corrupt goons, he said, "I cannot say anything about it at this moment." "Anti-corruption drive is a continuous process and the Commission is committed to do its duty impartially," he said. But, he would not detail on it.
The government is yet to make any significant progress in retrieving the money, which was smuggled out of the country by a section of people including some politicians. Bangladesh ratified the UN Convention against Corruption in February 2007 which enables the country to seek international assistance in recovering illegal assets from abroad. The convention requires nations to cooperate in the investigation, forfeiture and repatriation of transferred property. US $5 billion is being siphoned off abroad each year by the corrupt people in the country, a report of Transparency International Bangladesh has revealed.
During the anti-graft drive of the erstwhile caretaker government, a number of politicians admitted before different agencies of smuggling their ill-gotten wealth out of the country. Nearly 100 high-profile politicians fled the country to evade arrest. Some of them were convicted by the court in absentia. Most of them are now getting routes to escape through loopholes of the law.
A former minister, who was in the cabinet of HM Ershad and also of Sheikh Hasina, is owning a number of houses in foreign countries, was hiding in the USA during the anti-graft crackdown. He is learnt to have houses and assets in different forms in the USA, UK, Singapore and Malaysia. Many other politicians also own residential and business establishments abroad but none of them have mentioned anything about it in their wealth statements submitted before the Election Commission and the ACC, sources said.
-New Nation
Comments
In the post-World War II era,
In the post-World War II era, legislators found themselves in a quandary as they were confronted with a growing list of commercial, fiscal, and environmental offenses that did not actually cause direct harm to any one identifiable victim;ccda there was no stinking corpse. They decided that confiscating the proceeds of crime would adequately deter potential criminals. Anxious to avoid confiscation, organized criminals now needed to give these huge sums of money –ccip not easily consumed or invested in the legal economy without raising eyebrows – a patina of legitimacy: they needed to "launder" it. Money laundering has been dubbed the "Achilles’ heel of organized crime",VCP-410 for it compels mobsters to seek out and co-opt established businessmen and women with highly technical know-how and access to legal institutions like banks to launder their plunder.
Enjoying dance
Zamidar sahib, sorry! All can’t enjoy this Komala’s dance because they know who is controlling the dance and why they dance. From one eleven the Duduk and CEC are dancing for the pleasure of their master. They know they are dancing ugly but they can’t quit dancing because they need the jobs.
গ্রামের ভাই
আপনার কথার পেছনে যুক্তি আছে , তারপরেও বলবো আশা ছাড়বেন না । ভালো মানুষ এখনও আছে
যাদের উপর আপনী আস্থা রাখতে পারেন । সময়ের প্রয়োজনে সময়ই কাউকে না কাউকে নিয়ে আসবে
যে আমাদেরকে সঠিক রাস্থায় নিয়ে যাবে । আমি খুব আশাবাদী ,
RH: In BD, other than parents, cannot trust anybody
If one excludes one's parents, there is none one can trust in BD. Any politician, police, army officers, businessman, gov employee are liars.
dear looker
please don't give up . keep hope alive and hope for the best .
RH
সব কিছুরই একটা শেষ আছে । এই দুর্নীতিও একদিন শেষ হবে । আমি আশাবাদী । প্রচন্ডভাবে আশাবাদী ।
Fish
Is it fishing? How can they call it fishing when big fish is controlling the fishing boat? Swallowing of small fish by big fish can't be called fishing.
Who can be big fish? Big fish is a species, so only big fish can breed big fish. The country is corrupted from the beginning; the people nurtured big fish to get rid of occupation. So big fish was always there but we never called them big fish. There was an exception when someone Mr. Clean emerged. But the environment is so unclean that next generation failed to maintain the tradition of his predecessor.
Bangladesh doesn't have the will, villager
I don't believe BD has either the will or credibility to address the corruption that has been a fixture of very existence of Bangladesh. It started right at the birth of BD with BD Red Cross Head pocketing millions in front of Mujibur Rahman. Mujibur couldn't help.
Bangladesh is synonymous with corruption. It will be there for next 380 yrs like the past 38 yrs.
I will have to say, if we don't like it, leave it.
Corruption is a permanent fixture of Bangladesh.
Robin
Carmel, California
ACC started with the biggest fish, let it continue
Any fisheman, naturally will be interested to catch the biggest fish first; so, ACC's starting is good, hope it will go for each one until the last. Unfortunately, time will never be enough, there are close to 5000 highly corrupted in BD.