Sonia Mehzabin, owner of disgraced e-commerce platform Eorange, and her brother, former Banani police station inspector Sheikh Sohel Rana, collaborated to embezzle crores in taka from their customers, according to the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU).
The financial watchdog submitted its findings to the HC bench of Justice Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Khizir Hayat on Wednesday, after it was assigned to to investigate the allegations of embezzlement against Eorange and submit a report back in April.
Bank transactions of some Tk2,221 crore were made via a total of 13 banks, between January 2019 and September 2021, under Eorange and its affiliated organizations -- Red Orange International and Orange Bangladesh Limited.
Eorange owner Sonia Mehzabin and her husband along with her brother -- an ex-police official -- entered into an e-commerce business with their website, Eorange and gradually swindled crores of taka from customers by tricking them into paying in advance for products on huge discounts, said the BFIU report.
However, the financial watchdog could not confirm whether the ordered products were delivered to their respective customers or not.
Sonia, her brother Sohel Rana, her husband Masukur Rahman, and uncle Zayedul withdrew more than Tk30 crore of customers' money in their names from the concerned banks.
The report further stated that withdrawing customers' money before delivering their product amounts to fraudulence.
According to a case document filed by Criminal Investigation Department (CID), last year, Sonia Rana, her husband Masukur and Sohel's reported wife Naznin Nahar Bithi, another owner of the company, all have allegedly gobbled up around Tk1,100 crore in advance payment without delivering products purchased to customers.