The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has sent a letter to the governor of Bangladesh Bank (BB), requesting measures to temporarily freeze all officials' safe deposits in the bank’s security vault, reports Dhaka Tribune.
This is to prevent any official from accessing their stored items.
ACC Director (Deputy Secretary) Kazi Sayemuzzaman confirmed the matter on Tuesday.
According to the letter, on January 26, with court approval and in the presence of a magistrate, an ACC investigation team searched the safe deposit of former deputy governor SK Sur Chowdhury in Bangladesh Bank’s coin vault. They unsealed three containers deposited by him and found €55,000, $169,300, 1,005.4 grams of gold, and fixed deposits worth Tk70 million.
A review of the vault register revealed that several other officials had also stored sealed safe deposits.
The ACC suspects these may contain undisclosed assets. Given the ongoing investigations into allegations, including money laundering, against various Bangladesh Bank officials, the commission believes this measure is necessary.
The letter also mentioned that on January 30, during a discussion between the ACC chairman and the finance adviser on "ACC and asset recovery," concerns were raised about assets stored in the bank’s vault.
The finance adviser agreed to temporarily freeze these assets.
Bd-pratidin English/Tanvir Raihan
