Billionaires leaving banks; money laundered overseas

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Golam Mowla
Published : 07:30, Feb 06, 2020 | Updated : 07:30, Feb 06, 2020

FILE PHOTO/Mahmud Hossain OpuMillionaire depositors are withdrawing money from the banks; in the last four months, around 4,000 wealthy people withdrew their money with 519 taking their money in the last week of September.

Bangladesh Bank has published the report which covered facts till Sept 30, 2019. Bangladesh Bank officials say that at the end of June, the number of millionaire depositors was 80,396 persons and in July and August, another 3,000 millionaires were added to the list. But after the casino drive in Sept 18, the number fell sharply.

Economists say that during the drive against casinos many withdrew money from banks, converted it to Dollars and laundered the money abroad.

Researcher of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, Zaed Bakht said, “Most of the money withdrawn from banks during the casino busting was laundered abroad. At that time, the price of Dollar also saw an abnormal rise.”

Many took loans from banks and fled abroad, said former governor of Bangladesh Bank, Salehuddin Ahmed.

Bangladesh Bank officials feel that the report on the December quarter which will be published in May will show a further fall in the number of rich people.

As per Bangladesh Bank report at the end of September, there were 1221 persons with more than Tk 500 million deposit at banks.

In 1972, there were only five billionaires in Bangladesh, this rose to 47 in 1975, 98 in 1980 and 943 in 1990. In 2008 this stood at 19,163 persons.

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