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Bangladesh has signalled it could agree financial settlements with tycoons accused by Muhammad Yunus’s interim government of funnelling money out of the country.
Central bank governor Ahsan Mansur, who is leading the Bangladesh government’s asset recovery effort, told the Financial Times that settlement was “one of the options” it could pursue in less serious cases.
Mansur also said he aimed to raise as much as $100mn to finance future international litigation aimed at reclaiming funds from business and political figures tied to the regime of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
The interim government, which took power after Sheikh Hasina was overthrown by a student-led revolt last August, says people linked to her government took tens of billions of dollars out of the country.
In an interview in Dhaka ahead of a visit with other government leaders and officials to the UK this week, Mansur said Bangladesh Bank’s approach would depend on the nature of the alleged activities of those involved.
“If the nature is more on the lighter side of violations . . . we would go for a civil suit, and a financial settlement would be part of that process,” he said, without giving any examples of potential targets of such an approach.
The administration led by Yunus, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has opened 11 priority investigations linked to previously politically-connected families, including Sheikh Hasina’s.
It has also frozen some domestic bank accounts and is co-operating with foreign law enforcement agencies in its effort to claw back assets allegedly expropriated from the country under Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year reign.
During a visit to London this week that is intended to push forward such efforts, Yunus called for “more enthusiastic support” from UK authorities to trace and reclaim funds.
“This is stolen money,” the interim leader told the Financial Times in an interview, adding that the UK government should feel “legally and I would say morally” obliged to help track it down.
An economic white paper commissioned by the government and published in December estimated that about $234bn was siphoned out of Bangladesh during Sheikh Hasina’s rule.
Mansur, a former IMF official, and other government leaders allege the former prime minister’s allies removed funds from the country by acquiring fraudulent loans after taking control of bank boards or by skimming money from government infrastructure projects.
Supporters of Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League, which the Yunus government formally banned last month, have accused the interim administration of pursuing political vendettas in its crackdown on alleged corruption by the old regime.
Yunus said last week that a national election to replace his administration would be held in April next year.
Mansur said his team had been in touch with litigation funding firms and invited them to Bangladesh to assist with asset recovery.
Litigation funding firms pay for the costs of pursuing civil lawsuits, including lawyer fees and court costs, in return for a share of any settlement or court award or a pre-agreed sum if the case succeeds.
“We have been looking at litigation funding, and we are getting a very positive response,” Mansur said. “We would like to see that as much as possible can be funded through litigation funders.”
Omni Bridgeway, a Sydney-headquartered litigation funder, said executives had travelled to Dhaka in the first half of this year and held “multiple discussions” with Mansur and with senior managers at more than 16 banks.
“We have expressed a particular interest in supporting the banking sector by financing and managing the recovery of non-performing loans, especially those involving the illicit transfer of funds abroad,” said Wieger Wielinga, Omni Bridgeway’s managing director enforcement.
