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Destiny chairman, 21 others sued for graft ACC says small investors cheated out of around Tk 3,285cr

KailasH Sarkar
The Anti-Corruption Commission yesterday sued 22 officials of Destiny Group for laundering Tk 3,285.26 crore by cheating investors.
The ACC filed two cases against the company officials, including its Managing Director Mohammad Rafiqul Amin and Director Lt Gen (rtd) M Harunur Rashid.
In its month-long enquiry, the commission had found evidence that these officials embezzled investors' money by cheating them through company projects and illegally transferring the money to their bank accounts, said ACC officials.
ACC Deputy Director Mozahar Ali Sarder filed a case with the capital's Kalabagan Police Station against 12 Rafiqul Amin Harunur Rashid
Destiny Group officials for laundering about Tk 2106.64 crore out of Destiny Tree Plantation Ltd project.
Apart from Rafiqul and Rashid, 10 other company officials were accused in the case. They are Destiny 2 00 0 Chairman Mohammad Hossain, its nine directors Gofranul Huq, Sayed-ur Rahman, Mejbah Uddin Swapan, Syed Sazzad Hossain, Irfan Ahmed Sunny, Farha Diba, Jamshed Ara Chowdhury, Sheikh Tayebur Rahman and Nepal Chandra Biswas.
ACC Assistant Director Towfiqul Islam filed another case with the same police station against 22 company officials, including the 12 accused in the first case, for laundering Tk 1178.61 crore out of Destiny Multipurpose Cooperative Society Ltd (DMCSL).
Ten other accused are Zakir Hossain, former general secretary of DMCSL, Azad Rahman, former joint secretary of DMCSL, Akbar Hossain Sumon, former treasurer of DMCSL, Lt Col (retd) Didarul Alam, a director of Destiny 2000, and six former DMCSL members Shirin Akhter,Rafiqul Islam Sarkar, Majibur Rahman, Sunion Ali Khan, Saidul Islam Khan Rubel and Abul Kalam Azad.
At a press briefing at the ACC's Segunbagicha office in the afternoon, ACC Deputy Director Mozahar Ali Sardar said the DTPL authorities had illegally collected Tk 2335.74 crore from people by selling 6.18 crore trees through multilevel marketing between March 2006 and April this year.
In its probe, the ACC found that Tk 2106.64 crore were laundered from the DTPL project in the name of salaries, honoraria, dividends, commissions, incentives and promotional costs, he said.
The DMCSL authorities embezzled Tk 1178.61 crore by cheating people and transferred the money to other non-profitable and non-operational companies of Destiny Group, said ACC Assistant Director Towfiqul.
He said the commission had filed the second case against the Destiny officials for violating the Cooperatives Act by transferring money to other nonprof i l a b 1 e and n o n -operational companies.
The ACC officials said only Tk 56 lakh and another Tk 4.87 crore were left with the two bank accounts of the DMCSL and the DTPL after the transfer of the huge amount of money.
They said the Destiny officials tricked people into investing money in the DTPL project, saying if one invested Tk 8,000 under a "golden package,” the person would get Tk 20,000 after six years with a 72.46 percent interest.
And under the company's “silver package”, the investor would get Tk 30,000 against an investment of Tk 5,000 after 12 years with a 195.74 percent interest.
The Destiny officials took a commission of Tk 4,260 to 4,300 from each investment of Tk 8,000 and a commission of Tk 3,775 from each investment of Tk 5,000.
If the Destiny officials are found guilty of money laundering, they could be sentenced to up to 12 years’ imprisonment and will have to pay a fine double the amount they had laundered. Their moveable and immoveable properties could also be confiscated.