For years, public outrage over money laundering from Bangladesh has focused on familiar villains—politicians and business tycoons accused of siphoning billions abroad. But a closer look reveals a quieter, more pervasive reality: the outflow of wealth stretches to those from all walks of life.
Doctors, lawyers, bureaucrats, police officials, real estate owners, and even members of the middle class with professional clout have joined the offshore exodus.
Not a single taka of laundered money has returned, despite repeated promises and investigations.
Yet the number of Bangladeshis buying homes and parking assets abroad continues to grow.
Bangladesh’s legal framework poses significant hurdles to asset recovery.
Under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2012, only criminal cases can be pursued, meaning foreign asset seizure requires court approval—a process that can take years.
The first step in recovering laundered money is to legally cancel ownership of those assets abroad, said Bangladesh Bank spokesperson Arif Hossain Khan.
“Bangladesh Bank, ACC, CID, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are working jointly on this.”
Despite a June 14 notification outlining plans to resolve 30 prioritized cases by 2025, the actual process of fund recovery has yet to begin.
The hidden faces
Leaked financial records from offshore havens, including the Panama and Paradise Papers, had once placed the spotlight on global billionaires and political figures. But Bangladesh’s own intelligence files tell a more complex story—one where the list of those shifting wealth abroad includes bureaucrats, NBR officials, engineers, doctors, and even law enforcers.
According to government sources, over 570 officials—both current and retired—have come under the scanner for suspicious overseas transactions and property holdings. Many of them have no political affiliations; some are even known to keep an apolitical profile.
Yet their families maintain lavish homes in Canada, Malaysia, Singapore, and the UAE—properties often registered under the names of spouses or relatives.
These trends have given rise to notorious enclaves like “Begum Para” in Toronto, where numerous Bangladeshi families—often with one spouse still serving in public office—own expensive homes, funded through undeclared means.
Data from the Bangladesh Bank’s BFIU and the Real Estate Board of Canada say that many influential families in Bangladesh have bought permanent houses and flats in the Toronto and Mississauga areas in the past decade.
In Canada, this is called “Begum Para”—where the family lives abroad, and the husband or entrepreneur runs the business in the country.
A 2023 Canadian parliamentary report mentioned that the property purchase rate of Bangladeshis has increased the fastest among South Asian countries.
Similarly, under Malaysia’s Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) program, at least 4,500 Bangladeshis took up permanent residence from 2010 to 2022.
Time shields traffickers
The Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, and Offshore Leaks have revealed dozens of Bangladeshi individuals and entities linked to foreign money laundering.
These include prominent business figures, politicians, and government officials.
Many own luxury properties and offshore companies registered in jurisdictions such as the British Virgin Islands and Dubai.
Despite receiving information on at least 200 apartments—including one linked to a former land minister—the ACC has taken no action.
TIB attributes this inaction to political shielding rather than legal limitations.
Government officials maintain that asset recovery is impossible without new legislation.
“The draft law is in its final stages,” said a Finance Ministry spokesperson. “We cannot give a specific timeline, but it remains a government priority.”
In 2016, the ACC formed the ‘Offshore Company Investigation Cell.’ The purpose was to verify the involvement of Bangladeshis based on ICIJ information.
Although bank account verification and initial interrogations were initially started, they stalled due to a lack of information from abroad. Later, in 2022, the ACC submitted the names of 69 Bangladeshis to the court on the orders of the High Court, but no charge sheet has been filed against anyone to date.
At the same time, the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) identified 210 suspicious transactions (STR) in 2019-2023, most of which were foreign-oriented.
Economic analysts caution that further delays could render recovery efforts futile.
Under international law, ownership of illicit assets gains legal protection once the statute of limitations expires.
In stark contrast, 23 other countries—including India, the UK, France, Sweden, and Spain—have collectively reclaimed over $1.3 billion from individuals named in the leaks.
As legal inertia persists, questions mount over when, if ever, Bangladesh will see the return of its lost assets.
Estimates from the government indicate that over the past 15 years, people have laundered between $75 billion and $100 billion abroad.
Finance Ministry sources say disagreements persist over whether the law should allow civil proceedings and settlements or remain strictly criminal.
Many Bangladeshis now dual citizens in 101 countries
As per the Immigration Division at the Ministry of Home Affairs, Bangladeshis currently have the opportunity to acquire dual citizenship in 101 countries.
Among these countries are several nations across Africa, including Egypt, South Africa, Kenya, Algeria, Sudan, Morocco, Ghana, Rwanda, Burundi, Tunisia, Sierra Leone, Libya, Congo, Liberia, the Central African Republic, Eritrea, Gambia, Botswana, and Mauritius.
In South America, 12 countries are included in the list, such as Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, Suriname, Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Uruguay, and Guyana.
Additionally, Bangladeshis can also hold dual citizenship in countries across the Caribbean and beyond, including Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Dominica, Saint Lucia, Barbados, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and even Fiji.
First a leak, then silence
The Panama Papers leak in April 2016 caused a global storm. It shows that politicians, businessmen, and influential people from different countries have formed offshore companies and laundered huge amounts of money to tax havens. Bangladeshi citizens and institutions were also on the list.
The first batch of documents released showed that Bangladeshi citizens had opened companies in countries like Panama, the British Virgin Islands, Belize, and Seychelles and transferred money.
Among them were businessmen Mahbubur Rahman, Mohammad Rafiqul Islam, Mohammad Shahidul Islam, and several other expatriate entrepreneurs.
Although some claimed that this was an “investment opportunity,” investigations showed that most of these companies were shell companies—that is, companies created solely to hide the destination of the money.
In May of the same year, the names of several more Bangladeshis emerged in the second batch of documents, some of whom are involved in the garment, construction, real estate, or shipbreaking industries.
However, even after the list was published, no major investigation was carried out in the country.
