Of the 752 money laundering cases, 506 involved businessmen, bankers and persons from other professions. As per Prothom Allo’s investigation, businessmen as well as 142 officials of various financial institutions, including four state-owned banks and 23 private banks, have been named as accused in such cases. These include 5 presidents, 5 managing directors, 4 general managers, 6 deputy general managers, 17 senior vice presidents, 6 vice presidents, 8 assistant vice presidents of various financial institutions including banks.
The Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) also observes that state banks are among the highest risk areas for money laundering in Bangladesh. Most of the frauds happen in Sonali Bank and Basic Bank as well as other public sector banks.
Abul Kasem Khan, former president of the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI), told Prothom Alo that if there was effective monitoring for the finance sector, including banks, insurance and e-commerce, such incidents of money laundering and money laundering could happen. Could have It doesn’t happen one after the other. Unscrupulous businessmen and others involved in money laundering are given exemplary punishment, while others are deterred. But this is not being done.
In 2015, a case was registered against Abdul Aziz, owner of Remax Footwear, for illegally taking a loan of 4.85 billion taka (485 crore taka) from Janata Bank’s Imamganj branch in Old Dhaka and sending it out of the country. Thirteen officials, including Kazi Rais Uddin, the general manager of Janata Bank at the time, were accused of aiding and abetting him in money laundering. At the time the loan was sanctioned, the board of the bank included many leaders of the ruling party. The matter is still under investigation.