In the game of big bucks, don’t be small fry

I never thought I would say this, but I think Justin Trudeau is being a little mean.

Just because housing prices in Canada have shot up, leaving many ordinary Canadians out of the housing market, his government has announced that foreigners will be banned from buying homes in Canada. Did he even once think of the devastating impact this would have on foreigners who cannot quite remember how they accumulated all those crores of taka across multiple bank accounts in the names of their sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, nephews, nieces, chauffeurs, etc, and who find it to be racist when they are labelled as owners of black money?

Where will these helpless creatures "redirect" their riches if not to one of the richest nations of the world?

The new rule, however, is only for two years and will exempt permanent residents ("Phew," say the begums of Begum Para) plus those who have already become citizens and have managed to transfer to their new home all their "speed money" (money that make services more efficient), unofficial commissions and bank loans, long before the Canadians became so grumpy about foreigners hiking up prices on the real estate market.

This is why it is unfair that those who are new to the game and would be considered "small fish" in the ocean of money laundering will be discriminated against, while their more seasoned compadres will happily hold on to their 12-bedroom mansions.

But wait. According to The New York Times, buying vacation houses in "recreational zones" and "multifamily dwellings with more than three units" will be spared from this new rule. So mansions and palaces will be, it seems, still accessible to the latest batch of Bangladeshis wishing to make use of their money saved up from decades of forgetting to pay taxes on their unaccounted-for incomes. Congratulations, newbies! Sorry, Mr Trudeau, my bad.

Now that we have cleared up that distressing piece of news, let's talk about the plight of the "small fish" in their homeland.

You have to feel bad when you see the blatant discrimination practised against small-time swindlers. The latest "catch" has been made by the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU), an organisation dedicated to preventing money laundering and terrorist financing. The unit has asked banks to freeze the accounts of 15 individuals and organisations linked to the firm Universal Financial Solutions Limited for 30 days. This was as the consequence of a probe that found the firm had "swindled" Tk 125 crore from various mutual funds and interest income, and had hiked up management fees.

While the BFIU's action is commendable, we cannot help but feel a little sorry for the 15 members of the small fry community, when compared with the more astute Big Players who manage to take out thousands of crores of taka from banks and then make the money vanish in an instant, only for it to reappear as Swiss bank accounts, night clubs in Bangkok, or stunning villas in Singapore or Scarborough.

Even the law discriminates against small-time criminals. Petty thieves who snatch mobile phones from motorcyclists and bus passengers, for instance, get thrashed to a pulp by the public and police, while big-time toll collectors (who have acquired the high seats of power) continue to receive reverential salaams for being part of the Elite and Rich Club. It doesn't matter how they got their money, the main thing is that they can afford to buy anything – including that mysterious coat of invisibility: impunity from the law.

Similarly, the lowly drug dealer on the street will get picked up, while the kingpins who wear multiple hats (including political caps) and are in charge of the entire trans-border yaba trade can chill on the beach without a care in the world. The "laws of the infallible Big Fish" may also explain why the probe report on the USD 101 million heist from Bangladesh Bank has been deferred for the 65th time.

The lesson to be learnt is quite simple. If you are ready to launder ill-gotten wealth, make sure it is in the thousands of crores – a few hundred crores is embarrassingly measly in this game of big bucks.

Aasha Mehreen Amin is joint editor at The Daily Star.