Transparency International Bangladesh executive director Iftekharuzzaman on Saturday said that while it was difficult to determine the exact amount of money laundered from Bangladesh, various estimates suggest that an average of $12–15 billion was illicitly transferred out of the country each year.

He made the remark at a seminar titled ‘Odious Debt and Recovery of Bangladesh’s Laundered Wealth’ jointly organised by the Economic Reporters Forum and Sombhabonar Bangladesh, a non-governmental organisation, held at the ERF auditorium in the city.

Iftekharuzzaman, however, said that available data showed that $17 billion had been transferred through formal channels in recent years but the actual figure could be even higher.

Money laundering primarily occurred through banking and miss-invoicing, where false information was reported in import and export documentation.

Additional channels included transfers by foreign nationals, misuse of visas and work permits, hundi system, as well as health services and mobile financial services, he said.

‘For a long time, the Bangladesh Bank has been used as a facilitator of financial corruption and money laundering in the country. Even the central bank’s financial intelligence division, the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit, has been employed for the same purpose,’ Iftekharuzzaman alleged.

He said that the Bangladesh Bank had utterly failed in fulfilling its responsibilities and rather became the primary institution to blame for pushing the country’s banking sector to the edge of a cliff.

Iftekhar also said that for a long time, corruption, irregularities and money laundering had been carried out through the establishment of power circles and capture of various institutions.

Politics, bureaucracy and business have played fundamental roles in this three-way alliance, he mentioned.

Iftekhar observed that partisanship had long been embedded in institutions, reaching its peak over the past 15–16 years, enabling political forces to empower the bureaucracy and utilise various agencies for their agendas.

He said that recovering smuggled funds was a challenging and time-consuming process, but it was indeed feasible.

Iftekhar said that Bangladesh had a precedent for recovering laundered money, noting that $9.3 billion was successfully repatriated from Singapore in 2013 as a result of a mutual legal assistance initiative that began in 2007.

Western Sydney University emeritus professor Anisuzzaman Chowdhury presented the keynote paper at the seminar, saying that prioritising efforts to recover laundered funds and bring financial criminals to justice was essential.

He also underscored the importance of scrutinising International Monetary Fund loan repayments, arguing that international law held both lenders and borrowers accountable.

The keynote paper asserted that the IMF knowingly lent money to an illegitimate government, fully aware that the funds would be misappropriated.

Citing cases from Ecuador and Cuba, where similar loans went unpaid for two decades, Anisuzzaman suggested that Bangladesh could potentially negotiate a waiver of 50-60 per cent, if not the entire amount.

He also called for an independent investigation under UN supervision into all loans taken and expenditures made by the previous government from various sources.

Former Jahangirnagar University vice-chancellor Jasim Uddin Ahmed said that allowing influential individuals to escape with laundered funds would set a detrimental precedent for the future.

He stressed the importance of clearly identifying launderers, initiating legal action and advocating more vigorously against money laundering on international platforms.

Additionally, economist Naeem Chowdhury pointed out that the largest Islamic bank in Bangladesh had been compromised, adversely affecting investment opportunities. He stressed that changing mindset was the crucial first step towards recovering laundered funds.

Economist Naeem Chowdhury, ERF president Refayet Ullah Mirdha and general secretary Abul Kashem and editor of Greenwatch Dhaka Mostafa Kamal Majumder, among others, spoke at the event.