Members of Detective Branch (DB) arrested five people for misappropriating 18 Metric Tonnes (MT) of urea fertilizer by conducting drives in several areas of Bogura district overnight into Saturday morning. The arrestees are Al Amin alias Alauddin, 35, son of late Abdul Promanik of Shahjahanpur upazila, Abdul Alim, 50, son of late Dabir Anar of Nandigram upazila, Dhunat upazila’s Rafiqul Islam, 42, son of late Mondal, Mamunur Rashid Mamun, 48, son of late Afroza Begum, and Sajal, 35, son of late Azizar Sakidar. Ali Haider Swapon, superintendent of police (SP) of the district, said this at a press conference at his office on Saturday noon. SP Swapon said Ekata Transport’s trucker Alauddin started for Rangpur’s Buffer warehouse with 360 sacks of urea fertilizer weighing around 18 MT from Fenchuganj of Sylhet on September 25. Read: 238 MT of TSP fertilizers seized on suspicion of being counterfeit But Alauddin didn’t reach the warehouse he was supposed to with the consignment after passing a period of time.  Nor did he respond to calls from the transport agency’s organizing secretary Abdus Samad Swapon, the SP said. Later, Samad lodged a complaint against Alauddin to the district police when he came to know that Alauddin had sold the consignment to one Rafiqul Islam of Dhunat upazila.  The arrestees had long been involved in swindling goods of several companies when they were hired for transportation, he said. They were sent to a Bogura court upon filing a case by Abdus Samad against them, he said, adding that a drive is on to nab others in connection with the incident.  

A Dhaka court on Wednesday sentenced nine people including a former Managing Director of Sonali Bank to 17 years jail in a case filed over embezzling Tk 27.5 lakh from the state owned bank. Judge Md Iqbal Hossain, Judge of Dhaka Special Judge Court -5 passed the order. Also read:Sonali Bank writes off Tk 2,728 crore of Hall-Mark, 19 other defaulters The convicts are—former  Sonali Bank MD Humayun Kabir, deputy managing director (DMD) Mainul Haque, GM Noni Gopal Nath, DGMs Sheikh Altaf Hossain and Safiz Uddin Ahmed, AGMs Quamrul Hossain Khan and Saiful Hasan and Managing Director of Paragon Knit Composit Limited, Saiful Islam Raza and its director Abdullah Al Mamun.  Of them, Mainul, Safiz, Altaf, Quamrul Hossain were present during the judgment while the others tried in absentia. The court sentenced the convicts ten years imprisonment on charge of embezzling the money and fined them Tk 27.50 lakh.  Besides, the court also sentenced them seven years jail on charge of fraudulence under another section of the relevant law.   The court also fined them Tk 50,000 each and they have to suffer three months more in rigorous imprisonment if they fail to five the fined money. Also read:Fake freedom fighter's certificates scam: ACC sues Sonali Bank DGM On January 1, 2013, deputy director of Anti-Corruption Commission Mujibur Rahman lodged a complaint against them with Ramna Model Police for embezzling Tk 27,50,681. On May 22, 2014, ACC assistant Director Mashiur Rahman submitted a chargesheet against them after investigation. The convicts were also accused in Hall-Mark Scam case.

A businessman has raised an allegation against a man posing as a journalist of embezzling Tk 9.74 lakh in the name of ‘investment’ in an NGO. The accused was identified as Abdul Awal Chowdhury Shipar, son of Abdul Malek Chowdhury of Kanaighat upazila of Sylhet. Khasrul Islam Shamsul, a cloth trader of Rangmahal Tower in Bondorbazar, made the allegation at a press conference at Sylhet District Press Club on Tuesday. Khasrul met Shipar while buying clothes six months ago. He introduced himself as a journalist. READ: IDRA finds Delta Life Insurance Board’s involvement in embezzling Tk3,687 cr According to the allegation, several days after his acquaintance with Khasrul, Shipar advised him to invest in various foreign NGOs. At one point, he introduced himself as the managing director of ‘Disable Rehabilitation Endeavor and Movement’ - Dream, an NGO. Later, he took Khasrul to an office in Mirpur of the capital and introduced him to Lutful Haider Chowdhury, a resident of Shahidbagh area of Dhaka. At that time, Lutful Haider Chowdhury also advised him to invest in their NGO. NGOs usually have donors, not investors. But Khasrul was none the wiser.  Following the advice, Khasrul handed over Tk 9.74 lakh to Shipar for investment in that NGO. Shipar then cut off all communications. “And then I realized that Shipar and his associate had deceived me,” said Khasrul. He alleged, “When I called Latful Haider Chowdhury after realizing that I had been deceived, he threatened me in various ways. Lastly, he also denied taking money from me.” READ: 4 arrested for embezzling Tk 2.57 crore from DBBL, ringleader remains at large Khasrul Islam said they have deceived many people in this way. Shipar used to work as an agent for Lutful Haider Chowdhury. Khairul also sought the law enforcers’ cooperation to get back his money from the deceivers.

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on Thursday filed a case against a lab technologist of Khulna General Hospital for embezzling Tk 2.58 crore collected from Covid-19 tests. Khandaker Kamruzzaman, deputy assistant director of  Khulna district office of ACC, filed the case, said its Deputy Director (Public Relations) Muhammad Arif Sadeq. Read: Khulna Hospital technologist decamps with Tk 2.5 crore Covid test fees According to the case, Prakash was in charge of collecting the fees for Covid-19 tests from the people going abroad. From July, 2020 to July, 2021, he collected a total of Tk 4.24 crore Of this, he deposited Tk 1.66 crore to the government treasury and embezzled the remaining Tk 2.57 crore . He had been manipulating a number of people taking the tests since July 2 in 2020 to gain illegal financial benefits, according to the allegation. Later a five-member inquiry committee was formed headed by Khulna General Hospital Civil Surgeon and Supervisor Dr Niaz Mohammad. Read:Man to die for killing wife in Khulna According to the inquiry report, the amount deposited was over Tk 2.57 crore  less than the amount that was supposed to be received. Later, an explanation was sought from him on 22nd  September and he promised to provide it the following day. Since then he has been missing. Immediately after this, a general diary (GD) was filed from Khulna Civil Surgeon's Office at Khulna Police Station on September 28. Preliminary evidence of embezzlement against Prakash Kumar Das was found.

The Anti-Corruption Commission in Khulna filed a case against five  individuals on Monday for embezzling Tk 18 crore 50 lakh from  the corporate branch of Sonali Bank in Khulna. Managing Director (MD) of Star Sea Food Industries Limited Md Salauddin and the bank's godown keeper A. Mannan was made the primary accused in the case. Read:27 booked for duping govt of Tk 10.40cr The case, filed by the ACC Deputy Director (Khulna) Md Shaon Miah, was registered in the Khulna Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court on Monday. According to the case statement,  Star Sea Food Industries Limited borrowed a total of Tk 18 crore 50 lakh from Sonali Bank. The collateral against this loan was the exportable shrimp kept in the company’s godown. The bank appointed  A.Mannan Hawladar and supporting staff Rahim Babu for godown maintenance as long as the company does not pay back their loan. However, Managing Director (MD) of Star Sea Food Industries Limited Md Salauddin in collusion with Mannan sold all the exportable shrimps  in the local market from July 15 to August 10 of 2017. Read: ACC interrogates alleged accomplices of PK Halder at FFIL The then deputy general manager of the bank  Abu Hossain Sheikh found out about the secret fish sale and filed a case with the local police station at that time. A. Mannan who is an activist of ruling party affiliated organisation ‘Sramik League’ and president of "Collective Bargaining Agent", (CDA,  a trade union of working men) allegedly influenced the law enforcement agencies using his connections with the higher-ups. Finally, the investigative officers of police assigned in the case submitted  a biased final report stating that no anomalies were  found and the allegation of Sonali Bank  DGM was false. According to sources, Mannan even went as far as harassing and threatening Abu Hossain in many ways for bringing the allegations. But the tide started turning when the Anti-Corruption Commission started investigating the incident. Read:ACC seeks wealth information of Mosharraf's private secretary After a thorough investigation, the ACC team found evidence or so they said of irregularities and finally filed a case on Tuesday accusing five people including Mannan and Salauddin. Confirming the matter, Sheikh Shahidul Islam, the current DGM of Sonali Bank Khulna Corporate Branch said that Mannan has already been suspended over the matter and others who were made accused would follow him once they get a final copy of the case.

A court here on Sunday sent an officer of Sonali Bank to jail in a case filed over the embezzlement Tk 4.49 crore.