Sri Lanka is among many countries where the ill-gotten money of several Bangladeshi politicians are being siphoned off and invested in properties and businesses to ensure a secure future for their families, Bangladesh based Daily Star newspaper reported.

The other major destinations of investing black money from Bangladesh are the UK, the USA, Australia, Singapore, the UAE, Thailand, Nepal and Mauritius.

According to Daily Star, a number of leaders of both the Awami League (AL) and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) are learned to have secured their future overseas by winning citizenship for their families through investment visas or business migration schemes.

“Many politicians from top to mid level have invested in properties abroad. They have made the investments in the names of their wives and children,” said an AL central committee member, seeking anonymity.

A minister of the last BNP-led government has made considerable investments in Singapore.Sources close to him had told Daily Star that his son invested in a private port in Sri Lanka.

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) officials say they are investigating money laundering cases that have been on the rise in recent years.

According to the ACC annual report in 2013, the commission received several hundred allegations of money laundering, and investigated 118 cases.