The Anti-Corruption Commission has summoned 10 senior officials of Nasir Group, including the company’s chairman, to appear in front of the commission before 2pm today in connection with their alleged involvement with money laundering and tax evasion.
ACC Assistant Director SM Rafiqul Islam issued the summon on December 11 to the office address of the accused, an ACC source told the Dhaka Tribune.
Those summoned are Nasir Group of Industries Chairman Nasir Uddin Biswas, his wife and also Nasir Leaf Tobacco Industries Director Taslima Sultana, General Manager (import) Alfaz Uddin, GM (commercial) Abu Said, GM (marketing & sales) Shamim Ahmed, GM (admin) Abdus Sobhan, GM (accounts & Finance) Sidddiqur Rahman, GM (export) AKM Shahiduzzaman, Assistant GM (purchase) Mobaidul Islam and Cashier Mohammed Shamim.
The commission is investigating the summoned individuals’ involvement in laundering over Tk200 crore annually by evading tax against every letter of credit (LC) to import products. The amount might be much higher.
According to the allegations, Nasir Group used bank accounts to pay only 40%-50% of the total money for every LC to import products. The remaining amount was paid by using hundi businesses to evade tax.
The source also said the group was siphoning the money through seven to eight hundi trading organisations who mailed Nasir Group documents acknowledging the transfer of funds.
When contacted, ACC Chairman M Bodiuzzaman said: “We found the allegations against Nasir Group last year. After evaluating the allegations, the commission decided to run an inquiry against Nasir Group.
“The commission will take action against anyone who we found to be involved with the allegations,” the chairman added.