Embezzlement of Tk 3,285cr
ACC files two cases against 22 Destiny officials
The Anti-Corruption Commission on Tuesday filed two cases against 22 senior executives of the Destiny 2000, including its president M Harun-ur-Rashid, also former army chief, and managing director Mohammad Rafiqul Amin for allegedly laundering about Tk 3,285 crore.
The cases were filed separately with Kalabagan police station by the ACC assistant director, Towfiqul Islam, and deputy director Mozahar Ali Sardar under the Money Laundering Prevention Act, 2004, and the Money Laundering Prevention Act, 2012.
Besides the Destiny president and MD, its 10 other officials were also made accused in the embezzlement of Tk 2,106.64 crore under the Destiny Tree Plantation Limited.
Farah Deeba, wife of Mohammad Rafiqul Amin, was also on the list of suspects along with Mohammad Hossain, Md Gofranul Haque, Mohammad Saidur Rahman, Mohammad Mezbah Uddin, Syed Sajjad Hossain, Irfan Ahmed Sani, Jamshed Ara Chowdhury, Sheikh Tayebur Rahman and Nepal Chandra Biswas.
They were also implicated in the second case along with 10 others for misappropriation of Tk 1,178.61 crore in the name of Destiny Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited.
The 10 other accused officials are: Zakir Hossain, Azad Rahman, M Akbar Hossain Suman, Shirin Akhter, M Rafiqul Islam Sarker, M Mojibur Rahman, M Suman Ali, M Saidul Islam Khan (Rubel), M Abul Kalam Azad and Didarul Alam.
According to the money laundering acts, if the accused persons are found guilty, they will have to refund double the amount to the victims through the government and they will be jailed for a minimum 4 years and maximum 12 years.
The ACC officials found that only Tk 56 lakh was left in the accounts of the
Destiny Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited after its officials illegally withdrew the large amount of money.
They also found that the accused had left only Tk 4.87 crore in the accounts of Destiny Tree Plantation Limited.
ACC deputy director Mozahar Ali Sardar told reporters that DTPL had collected about Tk 2,335 crore from people by selling 6,18,48,630 trees between March 3, 2006 and April 2012.
It was found that the Destiny officials had misappropriated the funds in the name of salary, honorarium, dividend, commission, incentive and promotional costs, he said.
Towfiqul said the accused officials of the Destiny Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited had embezzled Tk 1,178.,61 crore as they transferred the money illegally to its sister concerns.
According to the ACC findings, 11 top official of Destiny 2000 had illegally misappropriated money from the bank accounts.
The findings revealed that Harun-ur-Rashid had drawn Tk 1397.96 lakh, Rafiqul Amin and Farah Deeba jointly Tk 7327.33 lakh, Mohammad Hossain Tk 189.84 lakh, Md Gofranul Haque Tk 8304.6 lakh, Mohammad Saidur Rahman Tk 16744.35 lakh, Mohammad Mezbah Uddin Tk 7420.93 lakh, Tayebur Rahman and Salina Rahman Tk 3077.26 lakh, Syed Sajjad Hossain Tk 1613.06 lakh, Irfan Ahmed Sani Tk 70.673 lakh, Jomshed Ara Chowdhury Tk 1821.31 lakh, Nepal Chandra Biswas and Mitu Rani Biswas Tk 3368.403 lakh.
-With New Age input
