Police yesterday arrested a director of Unipay2u Bangladesh, a controversial multi-level marketing (MLM) company, from Uttara in the capital on charges of swindling people.
Maj (retd) Khondoker Mukit Al Mahmud, a director of the MLM company, was arrested at about 1:00 am after some aggrieved investors of Unipay2u caught him in front of his Uttara residence, said Shihab Uddin, sub-inspector at Mohammadpur Police Station.
The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court placed Mukit on a nine-day remand after police produced him before the court and sought 22-day remand for him in connection with three cases filed for fraud and swindling people.
On May 6, police arrested the company’s Managing Director Muntasir Hossain Emon, 37, and its General Manager Jamshedur Rahman, 50, on the charges of swindling people. Police are now interrogating them.
Dozens of MLM companies have been in operation in the country since 1998 when Global Guardian Network (GGN) introduced MLM business in Bangladesh. Another MLM company Destiny started its operation in 2000, and following its success, many fraudsters started MLM business in the country.
Unipay2u Bangladesh started off in 2009 with an announcement that if anyone invested in the company, the amount would double in just 10 months. The MLM company on its website said it had invested in gold mines in Africa, Europe and the USA, though it was illegal without the central bank’s permission.
Unipay2u Members’ Club Ltd, a platform for aggrieved investors of the MLM company, alleged that the top management of Unipay2u Bangladesh swindled six lakh people out of nearly Tk 6,000 crore between October 2009 and January 2011.
Following media reports in 2011, the central bank froze 110 bank accounts of Unipay2u. The Anti-Corruption Commission also filed a case against the company officials for swindling people.
SI Sihab Uddin at a press briefing in the morning said they arrested Mukit on information from some aggrieved investors of the MLM company.
Mukit, however, claimed himself innocent and told journalists, “I joined the company seven months after the government froze its bank accounts.”
Meanwhile, the parliamentary standing committee on public assurance asked the commerce, finance and home ministries to take action against the MLM companies that are cheating people.
-With The Daily Star input
