Own Correspondent: The news of economist time is finally coming true. On january 17 economist time carried a news headline titled Bangladeshi Businessman “ S Alam may be subject to US sanctions”
From US congressional leaders to the Fed and the White House, the news was shaken. Later they talked to the editors of the Economist Times, an English newspaper, inside business news, and discovered the link of businessman S. Alama with money laundering in Bangladesh. As part of that, US State Department’s global anti-corruption coordinator Richard Nephew sat in a meeting with the Secretary of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Mahbub Hossain.
A three-member delegation led by Richard Nephew arrived at the ACC headquarters at 3:40 p.m. on Sunday. Later, the delegation held a meeting in the office of the ACC Secretary. On Monday, he met civil society representatives at the US Embassy in Dhaka and later the Secretary of State.
The Secretary of State said, ‘Nephew said that the United States prioritizes global anti-corruption efforts. In future it can be used for business and investment.’
He added, ‘We have talked to him about building capacity and getting help for countries where money has gone illegally.’ He said that they will work with the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) if the Ministry of Foreign Affairs receives instructions to investigate the allegations of money laundering against the S Alam Group.
On Monday afternoon, visiting US Global Anti-Corruption Coordinator Richard Nephew met with the Secretary of State. Later he answered various questions of journalists.
When asked what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is doing about the Tk 10,000 crore money laundering case against S Alam, Masood bin Momen said, “If the ACC requests this, we will do what is within the law.”
The Foreign Secretary told reporters that Richard Nephew praised Bangladesh’s laws and institutional arrangements. In response to the question whether sanctions are coming against any citizen of Bangladesh, the foreign secretary said that the United States sees sanctions against individuals as a way to prevent corruption. Not only Bangladesh it is applicable to whole world.
When attention was drawn to the public news in the media about the sanctions against 11 people, Foreign Secretary Masood bin Momen said, “He (Richard Nephew) himself was once the official of this sanctions.” However, they did not say about any person in this regard.
An official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who did not want to be named, said that the US sanctions will cover S Alam, his son, wife and directors of S Alam Group who are relatives of S Alam. Moreover, the top officials who are in different banks of S Alam will also come under this ban.
Ayear ago, a US ban put the government in quite a quandary. Now the Bangladeshi foreign ministry fears that the ban may come again before the election. Similar restrictions may come on various BD government agencies and responsible persons for different reasons. All BD embassies and missions of Bangladesh outside the world have been asked to be alert. Bangladeshi Foreign Secretary Masood bin Momen has sent a letter to heads of embassies and missions with caution.
The Foreign Secretary of BD gave this letter on December 31. A country’s ambassador to Europe confirmed to today’s newspaper that he had received the letter. On January 1, the day after the letter was sent, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen also directed ambassadors abroad to be cautious during the election year in an online meeting. When asked about this, the Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (BD ,West) Sabbir Ahmed Chowdhury told JOURNALIST OF BD , that the Foreign Minister in his speech has instructed the ambassadors to be careful, referring to the issue of RAB ban.
According to diplomatic sources, the letter sent by the BD Foreign Secretary instructed the embassies to be more cautious considering the current global and domestic political situation. The letter, without naming the RAB, recalled earlier unilateral US sanctions against the “elite” law enforcement agency and its senior officials. It is said, now there is enough reason to believe that some businessmen of government agencies who have financially supported the government and smuggled thousands of crores of TAKA abroad on any pretext and also officials at various levels may be given similar sanctions.
The US intelligence agencies have already started the investigation against Bangladeshi WASA MD Taksin A Khan. Among them, the name of multinational group S Alam is notable. Because the biggest loan scam in the history of Bangladesh happened during this recession An industrial group has taken a loan of Tk 30 thousand crores from bd Islami Bank. The industry group is the much talked about S Alam Group.The owners and family members of this group own a total of eight banks They have different types of business Some are alive and some are non-existent They also own the mediaIslami Bank came under the control of S Alam in 2017.The first news was that 2 thousand 460 crores of loan was taken from Islami Bank in the month of November itself by opening two fake companies The two companies are Nabil Group and Marts Business Line Apart from this, two thousand 320 crore taka have been taken from Social Islami Bank and First Security Islami Bank. In total, took 9 thousand crore rupees in November.
Immediately after this, on Wednesday, another news related to this started to be discussed S Alam Group alone has taken a loan of more than 30 thousand crore taka from Islami Bank This Islami Bank is a financial institution under the control of S Alam Group S Alam Group can take a maximum loan of Tk 215 crore It is also said that Bangladesh Bank suspects that S Alam Group and their related parties have taken a total loan of Tk 1 lakh crore from Islami Bank. These information are given in reference to Bangladesh Bank’s audit report And there is talk of irregularity Chairman and Managing Director of S Alam Group. Saiful Alam now lives in Singapore
Chairman of BRAC Bank and Executive Director of Policy Researchers Institute. Ahsan H. Mansoor called this loan as the biggest loan scam in Bangladesh, He said, “I openly told the then Governor of Bangladesh Bank, Fazle Kabir, that this would be the result of giving eight banks in the hands of one person.”
The Supreme Court of Bangladesh was surprised by this So the court asked to write a writ regarding taking this loan from Islami Bank, another court ordered banks to publish the names and addresses of borrowers on their websites from now on Bangladesh Bank, however, is not commenting on the initiation of the investigation S Alam Group has also now put a lock on its face The government is also concerned about this issue But former president of Bangladesh Economics Association and former professor of economics department of Chittagong University. Mainul Islam said, “Nothing happens in this country unless Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina wants it.” It is possible to catch and recover the money if he wants, but not otherwise.”
In this situation, the foreign secretary instructed the ambassadors to be very careful and vigilant in their respective areas of responsibility to prevent harmful activities for the government and government institutions. He said, at the same time, we should always be ready to prevent such activities in advance. The ministry will regularly inform the embassies and heads of missions in this regard and inform them of the latest situation.
A former chairman of a government-funded think tank on international relations considers the Foreign Secretary’s warning letter a ‘right initiative’. He told on media that there are efforts to bring sanctions against the government, it is right. The ban on RAB could have been avoided if we had been careful earlier.
On December 10, 2021, the United States imposed sanctions on the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and seven of its former and current officers, alleging serious human rights violations. The ban was issued in coordination with the UK and Canada. Now, in the year before the elections, there is a kind of tension going on with the embassies of Western countries including USA, Japan in Dhaka. At such a time, the ministry warned its embassies and missions.
Bangladesh sent an official reply to the United States last December regarding the ban on former and current officers of RAB. Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen has sent the letter to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.In the letter, Abdul Momen has highlighted the initiatives and activities of the Bangladesh government in suppressing terrorism, militancy, drug and inter-state crime. In the letter, the contribution of RAB and other forces of Bangladesh is also highlighted. On December 28, Masud Bin Momen told reporters that the Bangladesh government is considering hiring a law firm in the United States to lift the ban on RAB officials.
