Article: Illicit capital flight a big threat to fiscal discipline

Article - Media

Illicit capital flight a big threat to fiscal discipline

Newage, 17 July 2021

ILLICIT capital flight remains a consistent problem for the economy despite the government’s avowed position against this. The problem has increased, as economists say, because of an apathy on part of the authorities to curb money laundering and a criminal collusion of people in the agencies responsible for ending such capital flight. Although the government has introduced a scope for the private sector to invest abroad, businesses and individuals have continued to exploit the weak regulatory oversight to launder money. Since 2015, when the government allowed the private sector to invest abroad on certain conditions, only $327.14 million, or Tk 2,774.14 crore, has been invested, as the first report of the Bangladesh Bank on outward foreign direct investments says, in foreign countries through the formal channel. But the total amount of money laundered and invested in foreign countries by Bangladeshi businesses and citizens is many times higher than the amount invested through the formal channel. A US state department report published in November 2020 says that Bangladeshis’ investments across the world exceeded $3 billion by 2018, which is about 75 times higher than the legally invested amount. Continue reading “Article: Illicit capital flight a big threat to fiscal discipline”

Article: The Lazarus heist: How North Korea almost pulled off a billion-dollar hack

Article - Media

The Lazarus heist: How North Korea almost pulled off a billion-dollar hack

BBC, 21 June 2021

It all started with a malfunctioning printer. It’s just part of modern life, and so when it happened to staff at Bangladesh Bank they thought the same thing most of us do: another day, another tech headache. It didn’t seem like a big deal.

But this wasn’t just any printer, and it wasn’t just any bank.

Bangladesh Bank is the country’s central bank, responsible for overseeing the precious currency reserves of a country where millions live in poverty. Continue reading “Article: The Lazarus heist: How North Korea almost pulled off a billion-dollar hack”

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