The Anti-Corruption Commission yesterday pressed charge sheets in two cases against a total of 51 top executives of Destiny Group including its President M Harun-ur-Rashid and Managing Director Mohammad Rafiqul Amin on charge of embezzling and siphoning off Tk4,119 crore from the clients’ deposits.
Deputy Director Mozahar Ali Sarder submitted the charge sheets before General Recording Officer Abdur Rashid of the Dhaka’s Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court yesterday afternoon, ACC lawyer Kabir Hossain told the Dhaka Tribune.
The ACC has named around 150 people as witnesses in the cases where 46 people have been charged for the irregularities in Destiny Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited (DMCSL) and 19 regarding the Destiny Tree Plantation Limited (DTPL).
If found guilty, the accused persons could be sentenced to a maximum of 12 years’ jail besides refunding double the amount to the victims of the alleged fraud through the government.
Harun, also a former army chief, and Rafiqul have been made main accused in the cases, ACC officials say. Most of these accused are from the group’s board of directors.
The other accused include Farah Deeba, wife of Rafiqul, Mohammad Hossain, Md Gofranul Haque, Mohammad Saidur Rahman, Mohammad Mezbah Uddin, Syed Sajjad Hossain, Irfan Ahmed Sani, Jamshed Ara Chowdhury, Sheikh Tayebur Rahman, and Nepal Chandra Biswas.
The ACC inquiry has found that 23 top bosses of the group collected around Tk818.82 crore from its 26 companies violating the law of the country and laundered the money abroad from their personal accounts.
The Destiny officials collected the money from investors under its projects DMCSL and DTPL luring them of providing high interest. But the accused swindled the money – either transferred to their personal accounts or embezzled in the name of allowance, salary, remuneration, profit, special allowance or commission.
According to the ACC findings, the group has laundered a major portion of the swindled money to the USA, Hong Kong, Singapore, France and Canada. The Destiny Group officials had transferred the money to their 722 accounts with 35 banks.
The 26 companies are: Destiny 2000, Air Destiny Ltd, Destiny Multipurpose Co-operative Society Ltd, Destiny Tree Plantation Ltd, Diamond Builders Ltd, Destiny Printing and Packaging Ltd, Destiny Medical College and Hospital Ltd, Destiny Developers Ltd, Configure Engineers and Construction Co Ltd, Configure Housing Ltd, Destiny Express Ltd, Destiny Tea Limited, Destiny Security Force Ltd, Destiny Agro Industries Ltd, Best Air Ltd, Destiny Air systems Ltd, Destiny Nihaj Jute Spinners Ltd, Destiny Builders Ltd, Destiny Consumers Products Ltd, Destiny Environment Savings Energy Ltd, Destiny Media & Publications Ltd, Destiny Puki Printers Ltd, Destiny SAASCO Properties Ltd, Destiny Transit System Ltd, and Alpana Chayachitra Ltd.
The ACC probe team has found that 19 Destiny top executives collected Tk2,433 crore during March 21, 2006 to February 17, 2009 by selling over six crore trees to 17.5 lakh investors under its tree plantation project and embezzled Tk2,257crore from it. However, a spot visit made by the ACC found the existence of only 32.5 lakh trees, officials added.
The ACC on July 31, 2012 filed the cases under the Money Laundering Prevention Act 2004 and 2012 with Kalabagan police against 22 executives of Destiny 2000 Ltd accusing them of embezzling around Tk3,285 crore.
After filing of the cases, the commission arrested eight of the accused including Harun and Rafiqul. The former army chief later secured bail from the High Court.
Rafiqul and the group’s directors Mohammad Hossain, Didarul Alam and Ziaul Haque Mollah are now in jail. Three other directors Akbar Hossain Sumon, Safiul Islam and Shirin Akter have been absconding after getting bail from a lower court. The High Court later cancelled the bail orders.