ACC writes to Bangladesh Bank to freeze officers’ lockers in vault

The Anti-Corruption Commission has written to the Bangladesh Bank governor to temporarily freeze the personal lockers its officers have in the bank’s vault.

Those special lockers may contain “huge amounts of undisclosed money and assets,” the ACC believes/

The ACC sent a letter to the central bank governor on Sunday, ACC Director Kazi Sayemuzzaman told bdnews24.com.

With the permission of the court, an ACC team searched the safe deposit box of former deputy governor SK Sur Chowdhury in the Bangladesh Bank’s coin vault in the presence of a magistrate on Jan 26, the letter said. They found 55,000 euros $169,300 USD, 1 kg of gold and FDR worth Tk 7 million in the sealed box.

“During the search, the register showed that some other Bangladesh Bank officers also had sealed safe deposit boxes at the central bank. The sealed boxes could contain more undisclosed assets.”

Noting that the ACC has been continuing probes against Bangladesh Bank officials over different complaints including money laundering, the letter said: “On Jan 30, the ACC chairman had a meeting with the finance advisor from 3pm to 4pm, where they discussed the assets kept inside the Bangladesh Bank vault. The finance advisor agreed to freeze the assets in the vault temporarily.”

The ACC requested to freeze the safe deposit boxes of the Bangladesh Bank officers temporarily and ensure that no one opens the lockers and takes away their belongings.

The commission appealed to the Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge and the Senior Special Judge on Monday for permission to open the lockers and make a list of the assets inside.

After they received the permission, the ACC appealed to the Dhaka District Magistrate seeking a magistrate to calculate the assets inside and make a list.