Banking crimes, money laundering cases on the rise

KATHMANDU, July 15 : Rise in the number of cases related to banking crimes and money laundering is becoming a serious problem for government agencies.

According to the annual progress report of the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) unveiled on Tuesday, the specialized unit of Nepal Police initiated investigation into 30 cases related to banking crimes, and money laundering and terrorist financing in fiscal year 2013/14.

“Though cases like human trafficking, cyber crime and drug trafficking do have financial tentacles, core financial crimes is increasing at a serious rate in recent years,” Uttam Karki, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), said.

Karki, who was with the CIB for a long time, was transferred to the Metropolitan police Range Kathmandu on Sunday only.

CIB had launched investigation into four cases of banking offences in 2010/11, four in 2011/12 and six in 2012/13.

According to Karki, the victims of banking crimes come to know about the fraud very late due to complicated nature of the cases. “Promoters, managers or staff members of the banks and financial institutions (BFIs) have committed irregularities of huge amounts of money and duped depositors. But depositors come to know about it rather late,” he added.

During the review period, CIB filed cases against 54 individuals by arresting them on various charges. According to CIB, these cases involve claims amounting to a whopping Rs 1.52 billion.

Chudamani Sharma, director general of the Department of Money Laundering Investigation (DMLI), told Republica that most of the money laundering cases in Nepal are related to amassing of property by evading taxes, undervaluation of property, and overvaluation of property for bank loans, among others.

Money laundering refers to concealment of the origins of illegally obtained money, typically by means of transfers involving foreign banks or legitimate businesses.

“We have been investigating into the cases related to money laundering which are rising at a serious rate. The legal fight alone cannot ensure that the crimes will go down to the zero,” Sharma said, adding, “We have to make people aware that illegally earning of money or supporting those involved in such acts invite punishment,” Sharma added.

A few months ago, the government managed to de-list Nepal from the regular monitoring list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) - the global anti-money laundering watchdog -- for the next 4-5 years after the country fulfilled all its 15 commitments.

Source: Republica