The State and the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) informed the High Court that the statement of Ambassador of Switzerland to Bangladesh Nathalie Chuard regarding the request for specific information on the money deposited by Bangladeshi individuals and organisations in Swiss banks is not correct.
At the same time, they told the court that information had been sought through Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) about Bangladeshis who are illegally depositing money in Swiss banks.
Lawyers of the state and the ACC on Sunday made the submission in the High Court bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Khizir Hayat complying with its earlier order passed on August 11 this year.
The court said, “The statement made by the state and the ACC contradicts the statement of the Swiss ambassador regarding the request for information on the money deposited by the Bangladeshi individuals and the organisations in Swiss banks. An embarrassing situation has been created by her (Swiss ambassador) statement.”
“Your (state and ACC) statement will remove all confusion over the issue. You sought information about the money launderers from Switzerland. They are denying giving information, or want to give it on condition. You took initiatives seeking information from them. People will judge whether who told the truth,” the court also said addressing the lawyers of the state and the ACC.
Deputy Attorney General AKM Amin Uddin Manik appeared in the court hearing on behalf of the state and Senior Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan represented the state.
After completing the hearing the court ordered the ACC and the state to submit the information presented by them in the form of an affidavit by next Sunday. The court also fixed the date for passing necessary order on the issue.
Ambassador of Switzerland to Bangladesh Nathalie Chuard on August 10 this year said in a programme that the Bangladeshi government did not ask for any specific information about the money deposited by Bangladeshi individuals and organisations in Swiss banks.
According to the annual report published in June this year by Switzerland's central bank, Swiss National Bank (SNB), Bangladeshis last year deposited money equivalent to Tk 30 billion in various banks of that country, different newspaper quoted her as saying.
On the following day, the High Court bench asked the state and the ACC to inform it about the authenticity of the statement of the Swiss ambassador. The lawyers of the state and the ACC had also been asked to inform the court about the steps of their concerned organizations over the statement of the ambassador.
Complying with the court asking the state and the ACC placed their submission in the court on Sunday.
The state lawyer read a document in the court supplied by the Bangladesh Financial Intelligent Unit (BFIU) that said the BFIU has sought information from the Switzerland Financial Intelligent Unit (SFIU) about 67 persons and entities since 2013 when the organisation got membership of Egmont Group.
However, the SFIU supplied only one’s information to the BFIU which was transferred to the ACC for further procedure. The BFIU on June 2022 sought information from Switzerland through Egmont Secure Web (ESW) for the last time. But no information has been found yet, read the BFIU document.
