White Collar Crime in Bangladesh 2026: Fraud, Money Laundering, Directors’ Liability and Mutual Legal Assistance

White collar crime Bangladesh companies face: the 2026 position

White collar crime Bangladesh prosecutors pursue in 2026 rarely arrives as a single charge. A diverted supplier payment becomes criminal breach of trust and cheating under the Penal Code 1860, forged board minutes add the forgery sections, the movement of the money engages the Money Laundering Prevention Act 2012, and the same facts may interest the National Board of Revenue and the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission. Since August 2024 the state has also put recovery of laundered assets at the centre of its agenda, with frozen assets, travel bans and mutual legal assistance requests now routine tools.[14]

This guide is written for companies, boards and senior executives. It explains the core fraud, breach of trust, cheating and forgery offences, how money laundering and the BFIU fit in, tax evasion and market manipulation offences, when a company and its directors become criminally liable, how to run an internal investigation, the asset recovery drive, and how evidence and assets move across borders under the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Act 2012. Detailed guides on the Anti-Corruption Commission, corruption offences, AML compliance and criminal procedure are linked rather than repeated.

Summary: Corporate fraud in Bangladesh is prosecuted mainly under the Penal Code (criminal breach of trust, cheating, forgery and falsification of accounts) and the Money Laundering Prevention Act 2012, with separate offence regimes for tax evasion and securities fraud. A company is a "person" under the Penal Code, and several special laws deem its directors and officers guilty unless they prove lack of knowledge or due diligence. Cross-border evidence and asset recovery run through a central authority under the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Act 2012, which works on reciprocity even without a treaty.

Key point: The money laundering offence is where the exposure multiplies. Almost every serious fraud, forgery, tax or market manipulation offence is a predicate offence under the 2012 Act, laundering carries four to twelve years' imprisonment for individuals, and the offences under that Act are cognizable, non-compoundable and non-bailable. A dispute an executive treats as commercial can therefore become a non-bailable case before a Special Judge.[3]

At a glance

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Table of Contents

How white collar crime Bangladesh law is enforced in 2026

Bangladesh has no single white collar crime statute and no single prosecutor. The offences sit in the Penal Code 1860, which is the backbone of every fraud case, and in special laws for laundering, tax, securities and corruption. The agency that investigates depends on the offence and on who is accused, and in a large matter several agencies will work the same facts at once.

The Penal Code applies to companies as well as individuals. Section 11 provides that the word "person" includes any company or association, or body of persons, whether incorporated or not.[1] In practice, though, prosecutions under the Code are usually brought against the individuals who took the decisions, with the company named alongside them where the complainant wants leverage or where a special law makes the company itself liable to a fine.

The investigating and prosecuting bodies

Private-sector fraud complaints usually begin with the police or a complaint petition before a magistrate, and the more complex cases are taken by the Criminal Investigation Department. Offences involving public servants, public money or bank officers frequently fall within the schedule of the Anti-Corruption Commission, whose inquiry and investigation powers are explained in our guide to the Anti-Corruption Commission Bangladesh. Money laundering cases are investigated by the designated investigating agencies or by a joint investigation team formed by the BFIU with the government, and are tried by a Special Judge.[3]

For a company under investigation, one set of facts can produce parallel proceedings with different procedures, bail rules and courts, and what it says to one agency will reach the others. Coordinated strategy across every forum is the starting point of any white collar crime Bangladesh defence, and the stages of an ordinary prosecution are set out in our guide to the criminal case process in Bangladesh.

Fraud, criminal breach of trust and cheating under the Penal Code

Chapter XVII of the Penal Code contains the offences most often alleged against executives: criminal breach of trust in sections 405 to 409, cheating in sections 415 to 420, and the creditor-fraud offences in sections 421 to 424.[1] The distinction between breach of trust and cheating turns on when the dishonest intention arose, and that distinction is often the best line of defence.

Criminal breach of trust: sections 405 to 409

Section 405 requires entrustment of property, or dominion over property, followed by dishonest misappropriation or conversion, or dishonest use or disposal in violation of a legal direction or a contract governing how the trust is to be discharged.[1] The illustrations to the section make clear that an honest mistake causing loss, even one that is actionable in a civil court, is not criminal breach of trust.[1]

Punishment depends on the capacity in which the property was held. Simple criminal breach of trust under section 406 carries up to three years' imprisonment, a fine, or both.[1] Breach by a clerk or servant under section 408 carries up to seven years and a fine. Breach by a public servant, or by a banker, merchant or agent, in that capacity, under section 409 carries imprisonment for life or up to ten years, and a fine.[2] Section 409 is the provision prosecutors reach for in bank-loan, procurement and public-fund cases, and its life-term ceiling makes bail harder to obtain.

Cheating: sections 415 to 420

Cheating requires deception that dishonestly or fraudulently induces the victim to deliver property, or to do or omit something they would not otherwise have done. The deception must exist at the time of the inducement. Section 417 punishes simple cheating with up to one year, a fine, or both; section 418 covers cheating a person whose interest the offender is bound to protect; and section 420, cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property, carries up to seven years and a fine.[1]

Section 420 is the most frequently pleaded section in commercial disputes, and many complaints are, in substance, failed contracts. A failure to perform a promise is not cheating unless the promise was dishonest when made. Testing the complaint against that requirement, at the discharge stage or through quashment proceedings, is often decisive.

Defrauding creditors: sections 421 to 424

Sections 421 to 424 penalise the dishonest or fraudulent removal or concealment of property to prevent its distribution among creditors, preventing a debt being available to creditors, executing a transfer containing a false statement of consideration, and dishonest concealment of property.[1] They matter when a company is near insolvency. Moving assets to related parties ahead of a default or a bank recovery case can convert a civil debt into criminal exposure for the directors who approved it.

Forgery and falsification of accounts: sections 463 to 477A

Chapter XVIII of the Penal Code deals with offences relating to documents. Forgery under section 463 is making a false document, or part of one, with intent to cause damage or injury, to support a claim or title, to cause a person to part with property or enter into a contract, or to commit fraud.[1] Section 464 defines making a false document, which includes signing or altering a document without authority.

The aggravated forms carry the real weight. Forgery of a record of a court or a public register under section 466 carries up to seven years.[1] Forgery of a valuable security, a will, or a document authorising the transfer of a valuable security or the receipt of money or property under section 467 carries imprisonment for life or up to ten years, and a fine.[1] Forgery for the purpose of cheating under section 468 carries up to seven years and a fine, and section 471 punishes the use of a forged document as genuine in the same way as forgery itself.[1]

Falsification of accounts under section 477A

Section 477A is the provision written for the corporate context. It applies to a clerk, officer or servant, or a person acting in that capacity, who wilfully and with intent to defraud destroys, alters, mutilates or falsifies any book, paper, writing, valuable security or account belonging to the employer, or makes or abets a false entry or omission in it.[1] Fictitious invoices, inflated expense claims, concealed related-party transactions and manipulated loan files all fall within it. A general intent to defraud is enough; the prosecution need not identify a particular person intended to be defrauded.

Why forgery sections are added to fraud complaints

A complaint about unpaid money often arrives as sections 406, 420, 467, 468 and 471 together, which raises the maximum sentences and changes the bail position. The defence tests each section against the facts: was there entrustment, deception at the outset, or a document actually forged? Our analysis of criminal offences and penalties in Bangladesh sets out the bail and compounding classification of each offence.

Money laundering: what executives must know about the 2012 Act

The Money Laundering Prevention Act 2012 turns a domestic fraud into a laundering case as soon as the proceeds are moved, concealed or converted. Its list of predicate offences includes corruption and bribery, fraud, forgery and forgery of documents, smuggling and customs offences, tax-related offences, insider trading and market manipulation, and any further offence the BFIU notifies in the Gazette with government approval.[3] In a white collar crime Bangladesh investigation, the laundering charge is therefore almost always available to the prosecution.

The money laundering penalties are severe. An individual who commits, attempts, abets or conspires in money laundering faces four to twelve years' imprisonment and a fine of twice the value of the property involved or Tk 10 lakh, whichever is greater. An entity faces a fine of at least twice the value or Tk 20 lakh, whichever is greater, and its registration may be cancelled; if the fine is unpaid, the court may order imprisonment of the owner, chairman or director.[3] The court may also order forfeiture of property directly or indirectly linked to the laundering or the predicate offence.[3]

Money laundering liability of entities and their officers

Section 27 of the 2012 Act deals with offences committed by entities.[3] Where an entity commits an offence, owners, directors, managers, secretaries and other officers directly involved are exposed unless they prove the offence was committed without their knowledge or that they used their best efforts to prevent it. The practical consequence is that a director's defence will be built on evidence of what the board knew and what controls it maintained, not on denials made after the event.

The 2025 to 2026 amendment proposals

On 22 January 2026 the Financial Express reported that the interim government intended to amend the 2012 Act to allow proceedings against property itself where the owner cannot show a lawful source, introduce a rebuttable presumption in laundering cases, expand the predicate offences to target trade-based laundering through over- and under-invoicing, fast-track mutual legal assistance and asset freezing abroad, and impose tighter deadlines for charge sheets and priority trials.[4]

As of October 2026 the official text on the Laws of Bangladesh portal records no amending ordinance or act to the 2012 Act.[3] These proposals should be read as a statement of direction, not current law. Compliance obligations for reporting organisations are covered in our guide to anti money laundering law in Bangladesh.

The table below compares the main offences. On a phone, scroll it sideways.

The BFIU's role in a white collar investigation

The Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) is established under the 2012 Act as the national centre for receiving and analysing financial intelligence.[3] For a company, its importance lies less in its compliance supervision than in three operational powers that can be used against a business with little warning.

Account freezes

Where the BFIU has reasonable grounds to suspect that an account holds the proceeds of crime or is linked to an offence, it may direct a reporting organisation to suspend or freeze transactions for up to 30 days. Where further information must be obtained, it may extend the freeze by 30 days at a time, up to seven times.[3] A BFIU freeze can therefore last up to eight months without a court order. Longer restraint requires a freezing or attachment order from the Special Judge, and those orders carry their own 30-day windows for third-party claims and appeals.[3]

Information demands and joint investigation teams

The BFIU can call for information and documents from reporting organisations, and penalises failure to comply. It may also form a joint investigation team of officers from several agencies, in consultation with the government, to investigate laundering offences.[3] Investigating agencies must inform the BFIU when they open a laundering investigation, so the unit sees the whole picture even when it is not leading.

What a frozen company should do

A frozen company should identify at once which authority issued the instruction, under which provision, and when it expires, and answer with a documented explanation of the source of the funds. Silence while the freeze is extended is the most common mistake.

Tax evasion offences for companies and executives

Tax disputes in Bangladesh are usually resolved through assessment, penalty and appeal, but the Income Tax Act 2023 also creates criminal offences. Section 312 punishes anyone who wilfully attempts to evade tax payable under the Act with imprisonment of between six months and five years, a fine, or both.[7] A person is deemed to attempt evasion if they conceal particulars of income, wilfully furnish false information about assets, liabilities and expenses to reduce liability, make false statements in accounts or documents relevant to a proceeding, or intentionally omit relevant information from accounts or statements.[7]

Tax-related offences are also predicate offences for money laundering, so the proceeds of evasion can be traced, frozen and confiscated under the 2012 Act.[3] The Value Added Tax and Supplementary Duty Act 2012 and customs law carry their own offence provisions for evasion and false documents. Companies selected for a tax audit or facing an intelligence inquiry should therefore treat the case as potentially criminal from the start. Our guide to tax audit in Bangladesh covers the audit process, and our tax disputes practice handles the contentious stage.

Where executives are most exposed

The common patterns are income routed through related parties, fictitious expenses, false import values and business receipts paid into personal accounts. The same false entry can found a section 312 prosecution, a section 477A charge under the Penal Code and a money laundering case.[1] [7]

Market manipulation and BSEC enforcement

Securities fraud is governed by the Securities and Exchange Ordinance 1969. Section 17 prohibits any person, for the purpose of inducing, dissuading or in any manner influencing or profiting from the sale or purchase of a security, from engaging in any act, practice or course of business that operates as a fraud, deceit or manipulation upon any person.[5] Its particular examples include fictitious quotations, creating a false appearance of active trading, transactions with no change in beneficial ownership, matched orders and series of trades designed to move the price.[5]

Under section 24(1), a contravention of section 17 is punishable with imprisonment of up to five years, a fine of not less than Tk 5 lakh, or both. Under section 24(2), where the offender is a company, every director, manager or other officer responsible for the conduct of its affairs is deemed guilty unless they prove the offence was committed without their knowledge or that they exercised all diligence to prevent it.[5]

How BSEC cases reach court

No court may take cognizance of an offence under the Ordinance except on a written report by an officer authorised by the Commission, and no court below a Court of Session may try it.[5] Most cases are resolved administratively. In June 2026 the Finance Minister told Parliament that the Commission had imposed fines of Tk 14.96 billion after inquiries into 12 issues following August 2024, and that by 13 May 2026 it had carried out 114 inquiries, 12 investigations and 64 inspections, taken 675 enforcement actions and referred 16 allegations to other agencies.[6]

Those referrals are the point at which a market case becomes a white collar crime Bangladesh prosecution: manipulation is a predicate offence, and a referral to the ACC or CID can lead to a laundering case alongside the BSEC penalty.[3] [6] The disclosure, insider trading and governance rules are explained in our guides to securities law in Bangladesh and BSEC compliance.

Corporate and directors' liability for white collar crime Bangladesh companies commit

Because the Penal Code treats a company as a person, a company can be charged with offences such as cheating or forgery, although it can only be fined.[1] The greater practical risk lies with the individuals. There are three routes by which a director or officer becomes personally liable.

Direct participation, common intention, abetment and conspiracy

A director who personally signs the false document, approves the diversion or makes the misrepresentation is liable as a principal. Section 34 of the Penal Code extends liability to acts done by several persons in furtherance of a common intention, and the abetment and criminal conspiracy provisions reach those who instigate, aid or agree.[1] Under the Penal Code there is no vicarious liability merely for holding office; the prosecution must connect the individual to the act.

Statutory deeming provisions

Special laws go further. The Securities and Exchange Ordinance deems every director, manager or responsible officer guilty of the company's section 17 offence unless they prove lack of knowledge or all due diligence.[5] The Money Laundering Prevention Act takes a similar approach to offences by entities.[3] These provisions reverse the usual burden, and the only effective defence is contemporaneous evidence of oversight: board minutes, compliance reports, escalations and the response to red flags.

Non-executive and nominee directors

Independent and nominee directors, including those appointed by foreign shareholders, are often surprised to find themselves named in a complaint. Their position is usually strong if documents show they had no role in day-to-day management and acted on the information given. Our guide to corporate governance and directors' duties in Bangladesh covers the civil duties that sit alongside this exposure, and foreign executives should read our note on travel restrictions on foreign directors.

Internal investigations: running one that survives scrutiny

An internal investigation is how a company finds out what happened before an agency tells it, and in white collar crime Bangladesh matters it is often the company's most valuable early step. Done well, it gives the board the facts, supports disciplinary action and recovery, and positions the company as a cooperating victim rather than a suspect. Done badly, it destroys evidence, alerts wrongdoers and produces documents that prosecutors will use against the company and its executives.

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Privilege and confidentiality

Structure matters for privilege. Section 126 of the Evidence Act 1872 bars an advocate from disclosing, without the client's express consent, communications made in the course and for the purpose of the engagement, the contents of documents seen in that capacity and the advice given. The protection does not cover communications made in furtherance of an illegal purpose, or facts the advocate observes showing that a crime or fraud has been committed since the engagement began.[8] Investigations should therefore be commissioned by counsel, for the purpose of legal advice, with interviews and findings reported to counsel rather than circulated as management memoranda.

Employees and the Labour Act

Where the suspects are workers under the Bangladesh Labour Act 2006, dismissal for fraud or dishonesty requires the statutory inquiry procedure. Running that inquiry separately from the fact-finding investigation keeps the disciplinary file sound and the privileged work out of any labour case.

Report, recover or remain silent

Once the facts are clear, the board must decide whether to file a criminal complaint, pursue civil recovery, report to a regulator, or do several of these at once. Reporting organisations under the 2012 Act have suspicious transaction reporting duties that leave no discretion.[3] For other companies, it turns on the evidence, the risk of the matter surfacing anyway, and the value of telling the story first.

Asset recovery and the laundered-asset task force

Asset recovery from abroad has been a national priority since the change of government in August 2024, and the elected government has kept that priority. On 29 September 2024 the Financial Institutions Division restructured the Inter-Agency Task Force on Stolen Asset Recovery and Management, chaired by the Governor of Bangladesh Bank with the BFIU as secretariat.[12] Its members include the Home and Foreign Affairs ministries, the Law and Justice Division, the ACC, the CID, the Attorney General's Office and the NBR's customs and tax intelligence units, and its mandate covers tracing, removing legal obstacles, recovery, repatriation and management of assets, and coordination with foreign authorities.[12]

The 2026 position

On 22 April 2026 Prime Minister Tarique Rahman told Parliament that the government was pursuing 11 priority cases through 11 joint investigation teams led by the ACC with the CID and NBR intelligence units, and that a Stolen Asset Recovery Division had been set up within the BFIU on 22 February 2026.[13] Figures presented to a parliamentary standing committee and reported on 2 October 2026 put assets under court freezing, attachment or seizure orders at about Tk 769.84 billion, of which Tk 573.26 billion is in Bangladesh and Tk 196.58 billion abroad.[14]

The same report recorded, as of August 2026, 142 cases filed, charge sheets in 16 and verdicts in six; travel bans on 158 people; ten Interpol red notice requests; and six bank consortia, led by eight banks, organising civil recovery with international firms.[14] The task force structure and the compliance consequences for reporting organisations are covered in more detail in our AML guide.

What asset recovery means for companies

The exposure is not limited to the named groups, and the recovery drive has widened the reach of white collar crime Bangladesh enforcement. Suppliers, lenders, landlords, joint venture partners and buyers of assets from a targeted group can find accounts frozen, transactions questioned or property attached while funds are traced. Before dealing with a counterparty linked to a group under investigation, a company should check for court orders, record the commercial rationale and price of the transaction, and keep evidence of the source of its own funds. A third party with a genuine interest in frozen property must move within the statutory window to claim it.[3]

Mutual legal assistance Bangladesh: the 2012 Act in practice

Evidence and assets in white collar cases are often abroad: bank records in Singapore, property in the United Kingdom, companies in the UAE. The Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Act 2012 (Act No 4 of 2012) governs both requests made by Bangladesh and requests received from foreign states. Its scope covers investigations, prosecutions and judicial proceedings, including the identification, freezing, seizure and confiscation of the proceeds of crime.[9] For mutual legal assistance Bangladesh practice, four features matter most: the central authority, reciprocity, the grounds for refusal and the use of what comes back.

The central authority and the Advisory Board

Section 3 provides for a Central Authority designated by the government by Gazette notification, which may delegate its powers to a government officer. Under section 4 it receives foreign requests and forwards them to the competent authority, transmits Bangladesh's requests abroad, decides whether assistance is given or sought, and follows up execution.[9] In practice the Ministry of Home Affairs performs that role; it is the central authority named for Bangladesh in the India–Bangladesh agreement on mutual legal assistance signed on 11 January 2010.[10]

Section 5 establishes an Advisory Board, chaired by a representative of at least Additional Attorney General rank, with representatives of the Home, Defence and Foreign ministries, the Legislative Division, the Finance Division, the Financial Institutions Division and the Ministry of Law. It advises on requests touching sovereignty, national security, important public interest, international relations or military offences.[9]

Reciprocity, dual criminality and channels

Under section 8, a foreign request must be accompanied by an assurance that a similar request from Bangladesh would be honoured. Where there is no agreement with the requesting state, the conduct must also be an offence under Bangladeshi law. The assistance available includes locating and identifying persons, taking evidence, service of process, production of documents including banking and corporate records, and freezing, confiscation and related measures. Extradition, transfer of prisoners for punishment and purely military offences are excluded.[9]

Section 9 sends requests from treaty partners to the Central Authority and requests from other states through diplomatic channels.[9] Outgoing requests under section 31 begin with the investigating agency, which submits a complete request to the Central Authority for transmission. Requests to foreign states must be in English, with translations of any attachments, under section 37.[9] Bangladesh has also notified English as its accepted language for requests under article 46 of the UN Convention against Corruption, to which it acceded on 27 February 2007.[11]

Refusal and postponement

Section 10 allows the Central Authority to refuse, postpone or impose conditions on a request. The grounds include interference with domestic proceedings, a matter already tried in Bangladesh, risk to sovereignty, national security, public order or international relations, conflict with Bangladeshi law, freezing or confiscation that would not be enforceable under domestic law, reasonable grounds to believe the request targets a person for religion, race, sex, nationality or political background, and military offences.[9] For a foreign company or executive who is the subject of a request into Bangladesh, these grounds are the basis for a representation to the Central Authority.

Foreign confiscation orders and evidence

Under section 23, a final foreign confiscation order may be enforced in Bangladesh where the property would also be liable to confiscation under Bangladeshi law, on the direction of the Central Authority in consultation with the Advisory Board.[9] In the other direction, section 36 makes evidence, documents and information obtained under the Act admissible in court.[9] Admissibility is not the same as weight: the defence can still test how evidence was gathered abroad and whether the accused had any chance to challenge it.

Treaties and requests in 2026

Bangladesh has relatively few bilateral MLA treaties, which is why reciprocity matters. In April 2026 the Prime Minister said Malaysia, Hong Kong and the UAE had agreed to sign agreements, out of ten priority jurisdictions including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Switzerland, Australia, Thailand and Singapore.[13] By October 2026, 30 mutual legal assistance requests had been sent to 16 jurisdictions, and treaties had been concluded with Malaysia and Hong Kong, China.[14]

Practical points for mutual legal assistance Bangladesh requests

MLA is slow: a request passes through the investigating agency, the Central Authority, diplomatic channels and the foreign central authority before any evidence is gathered. A Bangladeshi company that is the victim of an overseas fraud should not wait for a state-to-state request: civil proceedings, disclosure orders and private prosecution in the foreign jurisdiction are usually faster, and the evidence gathered can support the domestic case. A defendant facing evidence obtained through mutual legal assistance Bangladesh authorities requested should obtain the request and the transmitting correspondence, check the assurances given, and challenge any use outside the purpose for which the evidence was sought.[9]

Defence strategy in white collar crime Bangladesh cases

The first days of a case often decide its course. An ACC notice, a BFIU freeze, a police complaint or a BSEC show-cause letter each start a different clock, and each needs a response that is consistent with the others.

Immediate steps

Preserve documents and suspend routine deletion. Identify every proceeding and every agency involved. Separate the interests of the company and individual executives, and give them separate counsel where they may diverge. Prepare for bail before arrest becomes a possibility: anticipatory bail and High Court bail practice are explained in our guides to anticipatory bail and High Court bail.

Challenging the case itself

Many cheating and criminal breach of trust complaints are civil disputes in criminal form. Where the complaint does not disclose an offence even if every allegation is accepted, or is an abuse of process, the High Court Division's inherent jurisdiction under section 561A of the Code of Criminal Procedure can quash it; our criminal quashment practice handles these applications. Where the case proceeds, the discharge stage is the next opportunity to strip out sections that do not fit. Choosing experienced counsel early is covered in our guide to finding a criminal defence lawyer in Bangladesh.

Mistakes to avoid

Executives give unrecorded interviews to investigators without counsel. Companies move money after learning of an inquiry, which looks like laundering whatever the motive. Boards rely on compliance policies that were never implemented. Foreign parents assume a matter in Bangladesh cannot reach them, overlooking the 2012 MLA Act and the recovery drive. And complainants file forgery sections they cannot prove, inviting a counter-case for false accusation.

What to watch in 2026 and 2027

Four developments will shape white collar enforcement over the next year. First, whether the new Parliament takes up amendments to the 2012 Act along the lines proposed in January 2026, including proceedings against property and fast-track mutual legal assistance.[4] Second, the first verdicts and civil recoveries from the 11 priority cases, and whether money actually returns from abroad.[13] Third, the conclusion of further MLA treaties beyond Malaysia and Hong Kong, which will decide how much asset recovery abroad is achievable.[14] Fourth, the pace of BSEC referrals to criminal agencies.[6]

The direction is clear. Enforcement of white collar crime Bangladesh law is becoming more coordinated, more international and more focused on assets. Boards that can show what they knew, when they knew it and what they did will be in the strongest position when an agency calls.

Frequently asked questions

What counts as white collar crime in Bangladesh?

There is no statutory definition. White collar crime Bangladesh prosecutors bring covers non-violent financial offences such as criminal breach of trust, cheating, forgery and falsification of accounts under the Penal Code, money laundering, tax evasion, securities fraud and corruption.[1] [3]

Can a company be prosecuted under the Penal Code?

Yes. Section 11 defines "person" to include any company or association, whether incorporated or not. A company can only be fined, so prosecutions usually also name the individuals involved.[1]

What is the punishment for criminal breach of trust by a banker or agent?

Under section 409 of the Penal Code, imprisonment for life or up to ten years, and a fine. Simple criminal breach of trust under section 406 carries up to three years, a fine, or both.[1] [2]

Is a failed business deal cheating under section 420?

Not by itself. Cheating requires deception that induced the victim to part with property, and the dishonest intention must exist when the promise is made. A later failure to perform is generally a civil matter.[1]

What is the penalty for money laundering in Bangladesh?

For individuals, four to twelve years' imprisonment and a fine of twice the value of the property or Tk 10 lakh, whichever is greater. For entities, a fine of at least twice the value or Tk 20 lakh, and possible cancellation of registration.[3]

How long can the BFIU freeze a bank account?

Up to 30 days, extendable by 30 days at a time up to seven times where further information is needed. Longer restraint requires a court order.[3]

Are directors personally liable for market manipulation by their company?

Under section 24(2) of the Securities and Exchange Ordinance 1969, every director, manager or responsible officer is deemed guilty unless they prove the offence was committed without their knowledge or that they exercised all diligence to prevent it.[5]

Is tax evasion a criminal offence in Bangladesh?

Yes. Section 312 of the Income Tax Act 2023 punishes wilful attempts to evade tax with imprisonment of six months to five years, a fine, or both. Tax offences are also predicate offences for money laundering.[7] [3]

Who handles mutual legal assistance requests for Bangladesh?

A Central Authority designated by the government under section 3 of the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Act 2012. The Ministry of Home Affairs acts in that role, and an Advisory Board chaired by a senior law officer advises on sensitive requests.[9] [10]

Can Bangladesh give legal assistance to a country without a treaty?

Yes, on reciprocity. The requesting state must assure similar assistance to Bangladesh, the request goes through diplomatic channels, and the conduct must also be an offence under Bangladeshi law.[9]