CID: Beximco laundered $135 million

The Beximco Group laundered at least $135 million by exporting goods through 18 companies without repatriating the export value, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) said yesterday.

The CID's financial crimes division described the anomalies as “trade-based money laundering” and has already launched an investigation, said Kusum Dewan, deputy inspector general (organized crime).

About $23.04 million was laundered through Apollo Apparels, $24 million through Bextex Garments, $25.20 million through Int'l Knitwear and Apparels and $24.39 million through Esses Fashions, according to the CID database.

All of these are concerns raised by the Beximco Group, whose vice-chairman Salman F. Rahman was the private industrial and investment adviser to former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The group first opened a letter of credit for the export of goods and then took a loan of 80 percent of the value on the spot, said Md Moniruzzaman, inspector of the CID's financial crimes unit.

Since the company did not repay the export proceeds, the loan remained unpaid.

“The Beximco Group laundered money in this way,” he added.

Another official from the CID's financial crimes division said they had found initial evidence that Rahman had laundered the money and invested it in real estate in various countries, including Dubai, Singapore and the UK.

Rahman's son, Ahmed Shayan Fazlur Rahman, had set up a large pharmaceutical company in Saudi Arabia, said a CID official in charge of the investigation. And most of the funds of this company in Saudi Arabia came from Bangladesh, he said.

Once the initial investigation is completed, charges will be brought against the Beximco Group under the Money Laundering Act, Dewan said.

During the initial investigation, the CID's Financial Crimes Division discovered that the Beximco Group was accused of fraudulently obtaining loans from seven banks over the past 15 years.

Of the loans, Taka 5,218 crore was taken from IFIC Bank, of which Rahman himself is the chairman.

According to a CID officer involved in the investigation, the sprawling conglomerate stole at least Taka 21,681 crore from the main branch of state-run Janata Bank.

According to the primary data from the CID, Beximco also accepted Taka 295 crore from National Bank, Taka 5,671 crore from Sonali, Agrani and Rupali and Taka 605 crore from AB Bank.

The CID's financial crimes wing has sent teams to the seven banks to search their database, said its special commissioner Mohammad Basir Uddin.

The initial investigation by the CID revealed that Rahman is accused of laundering loans abroad in the name of various companies of the Beximco Group.

There are also allegations that around Taka 6,600 crore was apparently withdrawn from the market and Taka 20,000 crore was misappropriated through fraud and forgery in the last three years, the CID's main investigation report said.

Rahman has been in police custody since August 13, accused of killing a shop employee.