Every year some $12 billion to $15 billion was laundered from the country during the immediate past Awami League-led government, Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of the Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), said today.

Trade-based money laundering was one of the major ways of money laundering, he said.

Bringing back the laundered money is possible, but it is time-consuming, he said.

Politics, bureaucracy and business should be more responsible for stopping the money laundering.

The TIB executive director made the comments at a seminar on laundered money and how to recover the money, held at the office of the Economic Reporters' Forum in Dhaka.