Desk Report:
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has recovered 23 bags of evidence containing information about the assets acquired abroad and money laundering of former Land Minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury Jabed. These evidences were seized based on the information given by two close associates of Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, Utpal Pal and Abdul Aziz, on remand. These evidences were seized from Sikder’s house in Karnaphuli Shikalbaha area of Chittagong early on Sunday.
The ACC said that the bags contain documents on the acquisition of assets abroad, information on bill payments and evidence of rent collection.
Deputy Director of the ACC’s head office, Mashiur Rahman, said that two close associates of the former Land Minister are on a five-day remand. During interrogation, it was revealed that many documents have gone missing. These were kept at the house of Jabed’s wife Rukmila Zaman’s driver Elias. The ACC conducted a raid there last Friday. But the bags were removed after receiving information in advance. A review of the CCTV footage of the house that day showed that the evidence was removed half an hour before the ACC team left.
Mashiur Rahman said, “Later, we seized 23 bags of evidence from a small house. When we opened some bags, we found that there were payments related to the purchase of assets abroad, information on house rent collection, various bill payments, and documents related to court orders. We have not yet had the opportunity to review the evidence in all the bags. The work is ongoing.”
Earlier, on September 17, an ACC team conducted a raid and arrested Jabed’s close associates Utpal Pal and Abdul Aziz. On September 18, they were arrested and handed over to the court in a case filed against them for embezzling and laundering Tk 25 crore from United Commercial Bank (UCBL). The court granted them a five-day remand.
ACC sources said that the arrested Utpal Pal was the AGM of Aramit Group, but he had been responsible for purchasing and looking after assets abroad as Saifuzzaman Chowdhury’s personal officer for a long time. Two laptops and two mobile phones were seized from him when he was detained by the ACC. A huge amount of information was found from these devices during the initial investigation. Court permission has been sought for forensic examination in this regard.
The ACC said that Utpal Pal worked as the mastermind of the money laundering process from the country to Dubai and various countries including the UK. On the other hand, Abdul Aziz was working as the AGM of Aramit Thai Aluminum Limited. He was in charge of buying, selling, renting and maintaining Saifuzzaman Chowdhury’s properties.
Earlier, on July 24, ACC Head Office Deputy Director Mashiur Rahman filed the case as the plaintiff, naming 31 people including Land Minister Javed as the accused. Apart from Jabed, the notable accused in the case are Jabed’s wife and former UCBL Bank chairman Rukmila Zaman (46), bank director Asifuzzaman Chowdhury (46), Jabed’s sister Roksana Zaman Chowdhury (56) and former UCBL Bank director Bashir Ahmed (55).
The case statement states that five fictitious companies – Vision Trading, Alpha Traders, Classic Trading, Model Trading and Imperial Trading – were opened in the names of officials and employees of Aramit Group owned by former Land Minister Jabed. Then, accounts were opened in the names of these companies at UCBL Bank’s Chittagong Port branch and a time loan of Tk 25 crore was approved in the name of importing wheat, chickpeas, turmeric and peas. Ignoring 17 negative observations from the bank’s own ‘Credit Committee’, the board of directors approved the loan on March 8, 2020. The money was then divided and transferred to four account numbers opened in the same bank and laundered.
The charge sheet states that since the bank director, loan applicant and approver were all relatives or close to each other, it was possible to take the loan and launder the money through a coordinated circle.
The credit committee of the head office, consisting of officers from the ‘Corporate Banking Division and Credit Risk Management Division’ of UCBL Bank, had raised 17 negative observations in granting the loan. Despite this, the bank’s board of directors approved the loan. The loan money was transferred to the bank accounts of four ‘nominal’ institutions—Alpha Traders, Classic Traders, Model Trading and Imperial Trading—through pay orders. Later, it was withdrawn in cash. The owners of these institutions that transferred the money are employees of the Aramit Group.
The case further alleges that after withdrawing the money in cash, the employees of Aramit Group who withdrew the money deposited it at various times through pay orders and vouchers into the account of Aramit Group, a company owned by Saifuzzaman Chowdhury Jabed, at the UCBL Bank’s Bahaddarhat branch.
