GAMBLERS IN SINGAPORE ACC yet to get reply to info request
The Anti-Corruption Commission is yet to get any reply from the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau of Singapore on its request to provide a list of Bangladeshis who gambled in Singapore casinos in the past five years.
‘We are yet to get any reply from Singapore till Wednesday. We are hopeful about getting it,’ the commission director general for money laundering ANM Al Firoz told New Age on Wednesday.
The commission on October 31 made the request to the Singaporean bureau.
The commission took the additional move alongside the on-going drives against the casino operators and illegal money makers in Bangladesh.
The commission chairman Iqbal Mahmood addressing a programme at its head office on Wednesday said that lists of illegal money makers are getting large.
He said that the commission opted for making lists of illegal money makers as acting against casino operators was not its duty.
In October, Firoz conveyed the request to the Singaporean anti-graft watchdog under the country’s Prime Minister’s Office.
In the letter, the commission said that in line with the government’s zero tolerance policy against corruption, they began an all-out drive against corrupt people who amassed wealth beyond their known sources of income and siphoned off money outside Bangladesh.
‘Investigations found that a number of people have transferred or laundered their ill-gotten money to different countries including Singapore,’ the letter said adding that the criminals arrested in this connection in their confessional statements said that they had smuggled or siphoned off huge amount of money to Singapore to gamble in casinos there.
‘For the purpose of proper investigation of the case, Anti-Corruption Commission, Bangladesh needs to get the full list of the people who gambled in casino in Marina Bay and elsewhere in Singapore,’ the letter stated.
‘It is reported that anyone form outside Singapore has to submit their passport before entering a casino in Singapore,’ the letter said.
The commission also mentioned Article 48 of the United Nations Convention against Corruption of which both Bangladesh and Singapore are signatories.
The Article 48 says state parties shall cooperate closely with one another, consistent with their respective domestic legal and administrative systems, to enhance the effectiveness of law enforcement action to combat the offences covered by this convention. States parties shall, in particular, take effective measures against corruption, it adds.
The commission requested the Singaporean watchdog to collect the passport numbers of the Bangladeshis who gambled in Singaporean casinos in the past five years and provide the list to the commission in the greater interest to free the world from corrupt people and practices.
On September 30, the commission launched inquiries to detect the illegal wealth of the people involved in unauthorised casino operations and other illegal businesses and the government started the drive on September 18.
News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net
