A Dhaka court has recently imposed a temporary injunction on British clothing brand Peacocks from doing business with any apparel factories in Bangladesh.
The court also ordered any agent or buying house of Edinburgh Woolen Mills Ltd (EWM) will not be able to conduct business with Bangladesh. The Peacocks brand is a subsidiary of Edinburgh Woollen Mill (EWM).
Barrister Imtiaz Moinul Islam, counsel for Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), confirmed this.
He also said that the managing directors of four companies jointly filed the case with the joint district judge’s court in Dhaka on March 14 alleging that EWM was trying to evade payment worth Tk5.98 crore on the pretext that its subsidiary company Peacock, which imported the products, was bankrupt.
The four companies are Designtex Knitwear Limited, Designtex Fashions Limited, Knit Bazaar (Pvt) Limited and Bottoms Gallery (Pvt) Limited.
According to him, EWM deliberately filed for bankruptcy to avoid paying dues to sourcing companies.
“Declaring a company of the same group as bankrupt and buying the bankrupt company through the group’s two other companies while not paying all the creditors is nothing but a fraud,” said Barrister Imtiaz.
“In the national interest, the suit has been filed as a representative suit as per Order 1 Rule 8 of CPC since many other RMG manufacturers have also become victims of the intentional and collective fraudulent activity of EWM Group, Peacocks and its accomplices,” he added.
The company continues to do business with a different name, claiming to be a new company and harming the RMG sector of Bangladesh.
“We filed an application for an injunction and on May 19, the learned trial court passed an order of temporary injunction restraining the opposite parties number one to seven,” he added.
According to the case dossier, British billionaire Philip Day is the owner of EWM while Peacock, Purepay and Anglo Global are subsidiaries of this company.
The bank information shows that Philip Day was in possession of Tk2,670 crore in profit and EWM Tk12,950 crore as of March 2, 2019.
The plaintiffs sent a copy of the court orders to the NBR chairman, commissioner of the customs, Shahjalal International Airport, customs of Chittagong Port Authority, and the governor of Bangladesh Bank.
