Bangladesh (Commonwealth) _ Ahsan Mansur, the new governor of Bangladesh’s central bank, alleges that the country’s financial system embezzled about $17 billion in the 15 years before Sheikh Hasina’s government fell in August.
According to estimates from other economists, the actual amount plundered before Hasina left the nation during her rule may have exceeded $30 billion. However, no one can say for certain. According to Mansur, the criminals engaged in a network of financial schemes within the government and at various
Ahsan Mansur, the country’s new governor of the central bank, claims that Sheikh Hasina’s government embezzled about $17 billion from Bangladesh’s financial system in the 15 years before it fell in August.
Other economists estimate that the actual theft under Hasina’s leadership, before her departure, may have exceeded $30 billion. However, according to a Wednesday story in The New York Times, nobody knows for sure.
Mansur asserted that through a network of financial schemes, criminals in the government and at several of the nation’s top businesses executed what amounted to the largest bank theft in history. Additionally, they caused Bangladesh’s economy irreparable harm.
According to Mansur, a member of the interim government in Bangladesh, the highest level of political power recognized that banks are the ideal location for robberies.
An inside job would entail seizing authority over the central bank, acquiring a number of private banks, as well as their boards of directors.
Following that, the banks gave businesses billions of dollars in loans, some of which were fictitious and never repaid. The study revealed that the banks illegally transported a significant portion of the money abroad.
Mansur, a 27-year veteran of the International Monetary Fund, asserted, “They hijacked whole boards.” He had never seen a nation at that time where the top government officials, engineering with the assistance of a few thugs, were able to carry out “the systematic robbing of the banks.”
Mansur visited Washington in October to urge the I.M.F. and other foreign lenders to provide financial support during the next challenging time. He is an experienced technocrat, much like many the other members of the newly formed government, which is headed by Muhammad Yunus, an economist who won the Nobel Prize.
With 170 million residents, Bangladesh is still suffering from the cycle of retaliation, which included mob violence following the overthrow of Hasina by a protest movement. Hasina hounded her detractors and utilized the state’s power to suppress the political opposition.
The American publication, which is based in New York City, stated in its online edition that Mansur believes the economic storm will get worse until it passes next year.
Uncertain about her fate and fortune, Hasina fled to India. The interim administration of Bangladesh declared that it will pursue her extradition.
According to A.K.M. Ehsan, executive director of the Financial Intelligence Unit, the central bank’s investigative arm, the interim government is looking into money laundering charges against Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, a previous legislator in her party from the port city of Chittagong and one of her allies who fled the country. No charges have been brought.
Chowdhury claimed to Al Jazeera that Hasina administration officials were conducting a “witch hunt” against him.
There were no successful attempts to contact Hasina or Chowdhury. The capital, Dhaka, has an empty party office. Its spokespeople, both domestically and outside, did not return several calls or messages.
A student uprising that started as a protest against economic injustice and unemployment overthrew Hasina.
Mass suffering had fueled the movement before security forces opened fire on demonstrators, resulting in hundreds of deaths. The nation had been on the verge of a severe financial disaster for the past two years.
After 15 years of progressively autocratic administration, student demonstrators overthrew Sheikh Hasina in August. Nobel laureate Yunus, who invented microcredit for the underprivileged, was chosen by the army and protest organizers to head an interim administration.
Leaders of Sheikh Hasina’s party have either fled Bangladesh or are imprisoned or in hiding there. The party lacks a reachable spokesperson to address the accusations made in the white paper. Out of 29 projects totaling more than 100 billion taka ($836 million), the committee examined seven significant ones as part of its investigations. The projected starting cost of the seven projects under consideration was 1.14 trillion taka. According to the statement, Hasina’s administration later increased the project’s cost to 1.95 trillion taka by adding more components and driving up land prices, among other things.
