Kathmandu, May 5: The government has decided the best way to fight financial crime is, shockingly, to give its investigators actual power. A new ordinance amending the Asset (Money Laundering) Prevention Act, 2008, expands the authority of the Department of Money Laundering Investigation (DoMLI), tightening oversight and fixing gaps that made earlier enforcement look half-asleep.
The biggest shift removes an old constraint that required money laundering cases to be tied to a separate underlying crime. DoMLI can now launch standalone investigations, even when the predicate offense is unclear. In practice, this widens its reach and lets it act before trails go cold.
Earlier revisions had allowed around 40 agencies, from police to customs to anti-corruption bodies, to file such cases independently. The result was predictable: scattered responsibility and weak outcomes. The new ordinance pulls that authority back toward DoMLI while also expanding the list of offenses that can trigger probes. Smuggling, tax evasion, and customs violations now sit firmly within its radar.
Financial market misconduct also gets dragged into the spotlight. Insider trading, market manipulation, and other distortions in securities and commodities trading are now explicitly covered. The same goes for banking violations, foreign exchange crimes, insurance fraud, and misuse of negotiable instruments.
To speed things up, cases can now go directly to the Special Court, cutting procedural delays. DoMLI can also push investigations forward on its own if other agencies fail to act.
Authorities have already started lining up cases against individuals in custody, including Deepak Bhatt and Sulav Agrawal. The message is simple: financial crime might finally face consequences, which must feel like a novel concept in some circles.
People’s News Monitoring Service
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