The government has decided to appoint an administrator for the protection of the assets of Jubok Karmasangsthan Society, a cooperative infamous for its fraudulent operations and cheating millions, in line with the recommendations of a government-sponsored commission.
An official of the Bank and Financial Institutions Division said the division had already told the social welfare ministry to appoint an administrator immediately to look after assets, worth nearly Tk3,000cr, situated in Dhaka and surrounding areas.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith had given the go-ahead to pursue the ministries to execute a string of measures recommended by the commission to the finance ministry, sources said.
Secretary of social welfare ministry Nasima Begum told the Dhaka Tribune: “We are looking into the matter but the process of appointing an administrator for Jubok has not started yet.”
The permanent commission on Jubok, headed by former bureaucrat Rafiqul Islam, gave its report to the finance ministry in March last year. The ministry, however, allegedly took no initiatives before the latest instructions last week.
Appointing an administrator for Jubok and bringing amendments to the criminal law, money laundering act and the inquiry act of 1956 are some of the recommendations of the commission yet to be dealt with by the law, commerce and welfare ministries, according to bank division sources.
Aiming to return the money to fraud victims, the government formed two commissions, one in 2010 and the other in 2011, the former headed by former governor of Bangladesh Bank Mohammad Farashuddin and the latter by former joint secretary Rafiqul Islam.
Nearly Tk3,000cr assets of Jubok were found in Dhaka and adjoining areas, as per the commission report.
Business licenses of the 17 subsidiaries of Jubok should be cancelled by the relevant government authority, said the commission report.
Jubok’s operations were suspended in 2006 on charges of involvement in illegal banking. Its subsidiaries included interests in housing, telecommunication, real estate development, tourism, health and agriculture.
More than 3 lakh clients of Jubok have been waiting for years now to get back the money they deposited with the fraudster, mainly because of the government’s indecision.
None of the affected ones, who were lured by Jubok into depositing their hard earned money for big returns, are yet to get back their money, totalling about Tk2,588cr.
The commission suggested that the government should appoint an administrator who would take Jubok’s assets into his custody, sell them and return the money to the customers.
It also said until an administrator could be appointed the relevant deputy commissioners and upazila nirbahi officers (UNO) might act as custodians of the assets.
The commission also identified 40 people who embezzled customers’ money, and recommended filing cases against them.
Meanwhile, RTV, Victoria University and Atish Dipankar University voluntarily offered to return Tk250m to the commission.
But the commission found that the actual Jubok investment in these organisations was much higher than what they had proposed to pay back.