Three members of a gang of foreign con artists were arrested from Uttara, Dhaka, on Friday morning after a drive was conducted in the area by Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) starting Thursday night.
Cameroonian nationals Hermann Martin Mbida Ekani and Amelie Mawambo and Kuate Fotso Theodore Ledoex, whose nationality has yet to be established, were arrested and €67,000, foreign liquor, several mobile phones and two passports were recovered from their possession.
At a press conference held at the RAB Media Centre in Karwan Bazar on Friday afternoon, RAB Legal and Media Director Mufti Mahmud Khan laid out the details of the gang’s well-mapped out con.
About a month ago, a German man calling himself Rogers contacted the branch manager of a private local bank, Md Zia. Rogers informed him that his company wished to invest $11 million in various sectors in Bangladesh and therefore wanted to understand the procedures his company would need to follow. The conversation ended with Rogers telling Zia that he would be contacted by another representative from the company named Steve.
A few days later, Steve contacted Zia and set up a meeting with him at the Westin hotel in Dhaka. According to RAB Legal and Media Director Mufti, what followed was a series of meetings between the two men at various locations in the city to discuss the details of the investment. At one point, Steve told Zia that he was headed to Singapore on some business and wanted to borrow $4000 from the bank. In good faith, Zia arranged to have the bank lend Steve the money, which the latter repaid within a few days.
Shortly after that, Steve once again approached Zia, asking for €250,000 in exchange for dollars amounting to the same. Spurred on by the prospect of the $11 million investment which Steve’s company was about to make via his bank, Zia once again agreed to helping him out. They agreed to meet on October 31 to make the exchange, but when the date arrived, Steve asked to meet at Zia’s residence instead.
That night, Steve and Kuate Fotso met with Zia at his house to make the exchange. After dinner, Fotso mishandled a bottle of some kind of liquid which fell and broke, with some of the contents splashing on to Zia’s clothing. RAB suspect that the two replaced the bank official’s packet of money when he went to the bathroom to clean up.
When Zia returned from the bathroom, the two men informed him that they did not have the dollar amount on them and asked to reschedule the exchange to the following day. The next day, when Zia contacted Steve, he told Zia that he was in trouble and being followed by police and would speak with him later and hung up.
Suspecting something was wrong, Zia checked the packet of Euros in his possession and realized that the money had been replaced with pieces of white paper. Alarmed, he immediately contacted RAB.
Investigating the matter, RAB were able to nab three of the gang members from the raid in Uttara. “We have found information about some others who are also involved and are attempting to capture them as well,” RAB Media Director Mufti Mahmud Khan explained.
Also Read- Decorated freedom fighter detained and interrogated
Earlier on Thursday afternoon, Lt Col Sarwar Bin Kasem, commanding officer (CO) of RAB 1, told the Dhaka Tribune that decorated freedom fighter Habibul Alam Bir Protik had been picked up from his office in New Eskaton after his phone number was found in connection with a case filed over the embezzlement of money by a local bank manager.
When interrogated, Habibul claimed that he was a victim to the gang’s cons. Mufti said that RAB was currently also looking into Habibul’s claims and were unable to comment on the extent of his involvement with the gang at present.
Tuesday, July 21, 2026
