"The Phenomenon of Trade-Based Money Laundering in Bangladesh" - A Critical Review

Bangladesh is one of the victims of financial crime like money laundering. Bangladesh's gross domestic product (GDP) has risen to 329.12 billion dollars in recent years and is steadily expanding. According to BASEL AML Index data (2020), Bangladesh's current AML score is 5.88. It stands in 38 rankings among 141 countries where Afghanistan ranks in the number one position, scoring 8.16, and Estonia ranks in 141 places with a score of 2.36. To fight financial crime like money laundering, The Central Bank of Bangladesh has taken necessary steps to be in line with FATF Status. In this connection, Trade-Based Money Laundering is a type of money laundering that shall closely monitor. Under-invoicing and over-invoicing are regularly practiced by the importers and exporters while declaring false prices of the goods. The remaining capital flies through "Hundi" and other media like Bitcoin or cryptocurrency platforms and uses offshore tax havens to hide the money. Though ML / TBML is a common problem over the entire world, in comparison to others, Bangladesh's progress is not significant, and not enough academic research is being published, which creates a considerable gap between the Government agencies and academia. This study attempts to break the ice between government agencies and academia. Still, more in-depth research shall be needed to combat Money Laundering (ML) or Trade-Based Money Laundering (TBML).