The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has sent a letter to the Governor of Bangladesh Bank, instructing necessary measures to temporarily freeze (suspend access to) all officials’ safe deposits kept in the bank’s security vault.
This move aims to prevent any official from opening their locker and withdrawing stored items.
ACC Director (Deputy Secretary) Kazi Sayemuzzaman shared this information with media on Tuesday.
In the letter addressed to the Bangladesh Bank Governor, the ACC stated that on January 26, with court permission and in the presence of a magistrate, an ACC investigation team searched the coin vault of Bangladesh Bank in connection with allegations against former Deputy Governor Sitangshu Kumar Sur Chowdhury.
During the search, the team opened three sealed containers deposited by him and found 55,000 Euro, 169,300 USD, 1005.4 grams of gold, and FDRs worth BDT 7 million.
Upon examining the register during the search, it was found that several other Bangladesh Bank officials had also deposited sealed safe deposits.
The ACC suspects that these sealed containers may also contain undisclosed wealth. Given the ongoing investigation into allegations of money laundering and other charges against various officials of Bangladesh Bank, the ACC considers this a necessary step.
The letter further mentioned that on January 30, between 3:00 PM and 4:00 PM, the ACC chairman had a discussion with the Finance Advisor regarding "ACC and Asset Recovery."
During this discussion, the issue of assets stored in the Bangladesh Bank vault was raised. The Finance Advisor agreed to temporarily freeze the stored assets.
