A case of approximately 2 billion rupees claimed by the Revenue Investigation Department against Poudel and his wife Alina for illegally opening an account in a foreign bank without the approval of Nepal Rastra Bank is pending in the Special Court.
We use Google Cloud Translation Services. Google requires we provide the following disclaimer relating to use of this service:
This service may contain translations powered by Google. Google disclaims all warranties related to the translations, expressed or implied, including any warranties of accuracy, reliability, and any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and noninfringement.
The United States appears ready to return to the Nepalese government about $300,000 in a US bank in the name of Bikal Poudel, the former executive director of the Security Printing Center, who is in prison after being convicted of corruption. The United States has informed the Ministry of Law that it will return the amount in Poudel's name if the Nepalese government completes the necessary procedures.
Poudel was found to have bought a house in the name of his wife Alina Basnet and also deposited $300,000 in her name in Bank of America. The investigation by the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority confirmed that Poudel had brought the black money he earned through corruption in public procurement while serving as the executive director of the Security Printing Center and the National Payment Gateway to the US via Singapore and Dubai. The black money thus earned was 'transferred' from banks in Singapore and Dubai to the US.
An official in the Prime Minister's Office said that after the positive message from the US, efforts are being made to bring the money through a bilateral legal assistance agreement or other diplomatic initiatives. "Since it has been confirmed that Poudel and his family members have opened accounts in Singapore and US banks and deposited dollars, efforts are being made to return them," he told Kantipur.
The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority arrested Poudel on 10 Magh 2080 during an investigation into a corruption case. During the investigation, the Ministry of Law had requested necessary details of him from the US through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Chaitra 2080. After that, the US had informed it of details including his house and bank balance. It has been confirmed that Poudel obtained a US permanent resident permit (PR) while holding a public position in Nepal. Poudel has been convicted by a special court in half a dozen cases prosecuted by the Authority, including corruption in public procurement and illegally obtaining PR. Poudel is currently serving his sentence in Dillibazaar Prison.
The case filed by the Revenue Investigation Department against Poudel and his wife Alina for illegal transactions by opening an account in a foreign bank without the approval of the Nepal Rastra Bank, claiming a loss of about 2 billion rupees, is pending in the special court.
After the CIAA arrested Bikal and the then Managing Director of Nepal Telecom, Sunil Poudel, on 10 Magh 2080 during the investigation of the corruption case, an investigation was launched against both of them in cases of public procurement, money laundering, foreign exchange regulations, bribery, etc. During the investigation, it was confirmed that both Bikal and Sunil received the corrupt money earned from public procurement in Nepal in Singapore and parked it there.
Bikal's wife Alina is an American PR holder. It was revealed that Bikal also obtained US PR on 6 January 2021. Seven and a half months later, it was revealed that he bought a house in New York in September 2021. Bikal and Sunil, former Managing Director of Nepal Telecom, had taken over the then government led by the Congress, UML and Maoists and had worked in organizations such as the National Information Technology Center, Payment Gateway, Telecom, and the Security Printing Center.
Bikal had become the Executive Director of the Security Printing Center in 2073 when Pushpa Kamal Dahal was the Prime Minister. He had also worked in the KP Sharma Oli government and was reappointed as the Executive Director of the Center in 2078 when the government led by the then Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba was in power.
The investigation found that the Poudel duo had accepted commissions abroad and ‘parked’ bribes there. It was revealed that Bikal and Sunil had opened an account in Singapore’s United Overseas Bank (UOB) and accumulated illegal assets worth about 300,000 US dollars.
The Poudel duo had opened an account in a Singapore bank from 2020 to 2022 (2076-078). At that time, 208,000 US dollars and 10,000 Singapore dollars were found in the name of Sunil and 74,995 US dollars and 10,000 Singapore dollars were found in the same bank in the name of Bikal. A case was filed against 9 people, including Bikal, in a special court on 3 Baisakh 2080, while he was the executive director of Surakshan Mudran. He was arrested during the investigation.
