B'desh: $16bn stolen yearly in Hasina rule

An average $16 billion may have been illicitly siphoned out of Bangladesh annually during former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's 15-year rule, according to the findings of a committee formed by interim leader Muhammad Yunus.

- Agencies

The panel led by economist Debapriya Bhattacharya submitted a white paper on the state of Bangladesh's economy to Yunus in Dhaka, on Sunday, according to a government statement.

Sheikh Hasina was ousted by student protesters in August after 15 years of increasingly authoritarian rule.

The army and protest leaders tapped Nobel laureate Yunus, who pioneered microcredit to the poor, to lead an interim government. "Our blood curdles to know how they plundered the economy," Yunus said in the statement.

"The sad part is they looted the economy openly. And most of us could not summon courage to confront it."