Sufiya Akhter from Gerua vilage of Savar has lost all hope of getting back the Tk2 lakh she had invested in the Destiny Tree Plantation Project.
“I lost Tk3 lakh, all of it sent by my husband who works abroad. I invested Tk2 lakh in the project and spent another Tk1 lakh. I do not think I can get the money back,” she told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
Like Sufiya, millions of investors now have no hope of recovering the money that they invested with Destiny, hoping to benefit from the higher interest rates.
Through its Destiny Tree Plantation Project, the Destiny Group sold over six crore trees to at least 17.5 lakh investors, offering them high returns. The Anti-Corruption Commission found that only about 5.3% of these trees actually exist, according to a probe report prepared by the anti-graft body.
The probe report said the ACC had found only 32.51 lakh trees in the forests and lands leased by the Destiny Group.
The company collected Tk2,455cr from the investors while the price of the existing trees was estimated to be a mere Tk21.97cr. Of that amount, the company bigwigs have either laundered or transferred a total of Tk2,257cr to their personal accounts, the report revealed.
Destiny Group’s much hyped and well publicised DTPL project not only cheated people by selling them fictitious trees, but they also gave the investors a money receipt that can never prove them to be the owners of the trees.
The executives of the company attracted people to invest and promised short-term profits, saying they had bought large tracts of land in Chittagong, Bandarban, Khagrachari and Cox’s Bazar.
Thousands of marketing executives were in the field to attract people, particularly in rural areas.
In 2009, Destiny Group formed Destiny Tree Plantation Limited claiming that it operated under Shariah law.
The ACC probe team on Monday submitted their investigation report on DTPL project to ACC Director General MH Salah Uddin recommending that cases be filed against 19 people, including Destiny Managing Director Mohammad Rafiqul Amin, Chairman of DTPL and President of Destiny Group M Harun-ur-Rashid, D2K Chairman Mohammad Hossain and some current and former D2K directors and shareholders.
Earlier, ACC filed two cases against 22 high officials of Destiny 2000 Limited accusing them of embezzling around Tk3,285cr under the Money Laundering Prevention Act 2004 and 2012 respectively.
