Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus has sought assistance from European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde to recover billions of dollars stolen from the country during Sheikh Hasina’s "dictatorship."
"It was a massive highway robbery," Prof Yunus said, adding that the oligarchs first took over banks and then took loans, which they never paid back.
The two dignitaries met in the Swiss city on Wednesday on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum annual meeting.
Dr Yunus engages with global leaders, seeks support to bring back stolen money
Lamiya Morshed, SDGs Affairs Principal Coordinator, and Ambassador Tareq Md Ariful Islam, Bangladesh Permanent Representative in Geneva, also joined the meeting.
Prof Yunus told Christine Lagarde, also a former chief of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), that some 17 billion dollars alone were taken out from the country's banking system by "oligarchs close to the dictatorship" and 16 billion dollars were siphoned off annually during the 15 years of Hasina rule.
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Lagarde said she would support the interim government's move to recover the money, and recommended that Bangladesh should also take help from the IMF to recover and repatriate the money back home, said CA's Deputy Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad Majumder.
During the talks, they also discussed the July uprising and Bangladesh's reform initiatives.
Lagarde also voiced her support for Bangladeshi educational institutions.