Agent flees after collecting Tk 5cr
About 500 customers of a multi-level marketing (MLM) company laid seize to the house of its Aditmari upazila representative at Vadai village yesterday after he went into hiding a week ago collecting around Tk 5 crore from them.
Jamiur Rahman, agent of online MLM company click2earn2you.com, persuaded many unemployed educated youths and collected the amount over the last two months, said police.
Chaos ensued in front of the house as the aggrieved clients demanded refund of their money for failure of paying them any profit.
They ended the seizure after local elites and union parishad leaders assured them of taking steps to arrange the refund.
Meanwhile, about 50 customers went to the company office on Airport Road in Lalmonirhat town around 8:00pm yesterday and took away furniture including chairs and tables from there.
Jamiur, also a local madrasa teacher, offered people attractive income by clicking on online advertisements sitting at their homes.
He provided a money receipt and a password to each customer to log on to the company website and start earning.
Sultan Ahmed, a customer at Vadai village, said Jamiur enticed him to join the company a month ago offering hefty profit. He bought five centres for Tk 56,000.
Each of the centres carries a point and costs a client Tk 11,200.
“The company has closed its operations overnight without paying a single penny as profit,” he added.
Another client Shariful Islam said, “Two months ago I joined the firm buying ten centres at Tk 1,12,000 as Jamiur assured me that the company would not cheat.”
Ashraful Islam of Mohiskhocha village paid Jamiur Tk 89,600 for eight centres. “I didn’t get any profit, but the company is closed now. I have no idea what to do to get my money back.”
The agent has made a pile of money since starting the company’s operations in Aditmari upazila, complained another client Yasin Ali adding, he (Jamiur) has bought a motorcycle and 10 bigha land here.
Contacted, Jamiur denied the allegations made against him, saying he himself has been cheated by the company.
The total cash collected from the customers has been deposited in the company’s account, he claimed.
Talking to The Daily Star, Sharif Mahmud, chief executive officer of the company, said Jamiur didn’t contact him for last two weeks.
“We have received only a partial amount of the money deposited to him [Jamiur] by our clients, but he has pocketed up the maximum amount,” he complained.
The management of click2earn2you.com has suspended its operations for some days due to some problems, mentioned the CEO.
He hoped to resume the company activities within a month.
Clients during the last two days have lodged five general diaries with Aditmari Police Station in this connection.
-With The Daily Star input