Stories of financial scams have been so common in the past decade's Bangladesh that nothing - their number, frequency, and amount of money involved - did surprise people. They may have become rather immune to reports of bribery, loan forgery, share market manipulation, cheating on small savers and consumers, flight of huge capital and the world's largest cyber heist.
These were reported as facts mostly devoid of human faces which could have been depicted as culprits, excepting a few who were, however, covered up. Thus, the headlines such as '$81.74b siphoned in 11 years from Bangladesh' [2019], 'Major scams cost banks Tk 22,502cr: CPD' [2018], and 'Over Tk 30,000cr embezzled in 7 years' [2016] have lost their edge.
Such indifference with little impact of revelations has offered reprieve to the corrupt minds, especially when they enjoy high-flying life at home and various places all over the world.
Earning money by questionable means in a country which has been repeatedly ranked one of the most corrupt ones on earth, some of these people are longing for becoming 'gentlemen'. They try to build 'second homes' in Kuala Lumpur, Dubai, Sydney, London, Toronto and some other cities to escape, say, dust or traffic congestion in Dhaka, and legal consequences of their misdeeds at any point in their life.
Immigration is considered the safest route for illicit moneymakers since a number of self-proclaimed civilised countries are ready to offer them dignified shelter. But criminals can't think justice can't be avoided always.
When Prasanta Kumar (PK) Halder fled to Canada embezzling Taka 35 billion from the country, and as it was reported by the media, the Bangladeshi community came up with angry reaction to his immigration there. "These people once acquired huge sums of money by abusing the system back home and now they are trying to pollute a country where we are trying to settle and our children are pursuing a career based on good education, honesty and hard work," a Bangladeshi immigrant told a protest rally in Toronto on Friday last.
The protesters pledged that they might prepare a list of such corrupt individuals and boycott them socially. The message of the 'unprecedented' protest, they believe, would be resonated with 'brothers and sisters' in cities of higher concentration of expatriate Bangladeshis.
There are many like PK Halder, who have siphoned off ill-gotten money from the motherland. Their activities have contributed to portraying Bangladesh as one of the major sources of capital flight and the 'riskiest country' in terms of bribery threats. They did never expect any criticism, let alone resistance from the community, should they migrate to a tranquil city.
The protest against migration with stolen money suggests that time has come to demand correction of the legal regime of some host nations. Thugs from the third world transfer money to, for example, Swiss banks, and take immigration in 'investor category' in developed countries, leaving their motherland bleeding.
Some people in the United States who made fortunes by unethical means in the 19th century were called 'robber barons'. Unfortunately, the liberal democracies of the West have worked as shield for black money holders who sought to camouflage their identities.
The countries of the underdeveloped world generally failed to retrieve assets stolen by some rulers and deposited with financial institutions of technologically advanced nations. This issue was raised at the United Nations General Assembly session 2019.
In that context, Goldman Sachs' reported move to pay US$2 billion fine following allegations of pilferage of billions of dollars of Malaysian government money, seems to be a major shift from the past.
The expatriate Bangladeshis have gone one step forward - by exposing the very corrupt persons as corrupt in their potential destinations.