US secret service to train Bangladeshi agencies

The United States Secret Service, a federal law enforcement agency headquartered in Washington DC, will train the officials of six agencies of Bangladesh to increase their capacity to tackle money laundering and terror financing.

Around 60 officials of the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU), four units of Bangladesh Police, including the Criminal Investigation Department, the National Board of Revenue (NBR), the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), the Department of Narcotics Control and Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) will receive the trainings in two phases.

Twenty officials of the BFIU will take part in the training, an official of the intelligence unit told The Daily Star.

A delegation of the American secret service will come to Bangladesh to conduct the training.

In the first phase, a five-day training programme will begin at the Police Staff College Bangladesh in the capital on November 10, followed by another five-day training session from November 17.

Another two sets of the follow-up trainings of the second phase will begin respectively on February 2 and February 9.

All agencies responsible for tackling money laundering have become active after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina-led government on August 5 this year.

The BFIU, ACC, NBR, BSEC, and other regulatory bodies have initiated investigations into business tycoons who have allegedly siphoned money abroad.

The interim-government has already formed a task force headed by the Bangladesh Bank governor to bring back the laundered money.

In a recent interview with the Financial Times, BB Governor Ahsan H Mansur accused tycoons linked to the toppled Sheikh Hasina regime of working with members of the country's powerful military intelligence agency to siphon $17 billion (around Tk 2 trillion) out of Bangladesh's banking sector during her rule.