The Anti-corruption Commission (ACC) submitted Sunday two charge sheets to the court accusing 51 officials of Destiny Group for swindling of about Tk 41.19 billion of investors' money.
ACC deputy director Mozahar Ali Sarder and assistant director Toufiqul Islam submitted the charge sheets, the anti-graft body public relations officer Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya told the reporters on the day.
After submitting the charge sheets, the ACC officials said these were submitted according to the ACC law as the commission's inquiry found the allegation of money laundering authentic.
On January 15 last, the ACC approved the charge sheets in two cases for swindling investors' money from two projects of the Destiny Group.
According to the probe report, the Destiny Group executives swindled clients' money from the two projects, Destiny Tree Plantation Limited (DTPL) and Destiny Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited (DMCSL).
According to a Bangladesh Bank (BB) report, the Destiny Group laundered around Tk 51.13 billion from 2002 to 2006 through 282 accounts opened by its three sister concerns, namely, Destiny 2000 Limited, DTPL, and DMCSL.
The BB report said Destiny 2000 started operating bank accounts from the year 2000, the DMCSL from 2005 and the Destiny Tree Plantation from 2006.
On July 31, 2012, the ACC filed two money-laundering cases against Destiny 2000 Limited chairman Lt General (retd) M Harunur Rashid, former army chief and managing director Rafiqul Amin and 20 others on charge of misappropriating investors' money amounting to Tk 32.85 billion.
ACC deputy director Mozahar Ali Sarder filed one case with Kalabagan Police Station against 12 officials of Destiny 2000 Limited, including its chairman and managing director, under the Money Laundering Act 2012 for misappropriating over Tk 210 million from the DTPL.
ACC assistant director Toufiqul Islam filed another case with the same police station against 22 Destiny officials under the same Act for the embezzlement of Tk 11.78 billion from the DMCSL.
After filing two cases in connection with the swindling, the team conducted its investigation for more than 17 months. During the inquiry, the ACC found more people's involvement in the scam and the amount of money also increased. The ACC investigation found that the Destiny Group men had transferred the money to their 722 accounts with 35 banks.
The probe report also said the Destiny Group bosses laundered money mainly to the US, Canada, Singapore, France and Hong Kong, and the group embezzled the money through its 35 sister concerns.
The accused in the first charge sheet were Destiny Group president and former army chief Lt General (retd) M Harunur Rashid, managing director Mohammad Rafiqul Amin, chairman of Destiny 2000 Limited Mohammad Hossain, deputy managing director Md Gofranul Haque, directors Farah Deeba, wife of Mohammad Rafiqul Amin, Mohammad Saidur Rahman, Mohammad Mezbah Uddin, Syed Sajjad Hossain, Irfan Ahmed Sani, Jamshed Ara Chowdhury, Sheikh Tayebur Rahman, Nepal Chandra Biswas, Jasimuddin Bhuiyan, Zakir Hossain, SM Ahasanul Kabir, Zubair Sohel, Mosaddek Ali Khan, Abdul Manan and Abul Kalam Azad.
The second charge sheet's accused were Destiny Group officials Azad Rahman, Md Akbar Hossain Sumon, Saidul Islam Khan Rubel, Md Sumon Ali Khan, Shireen Akther, Rafiqul Islam Sarker, Md Mujibur Rahman, Lt Col (retd) Md Didarul Alam, Dr M Haidaruzzaman, Mohammad Jainul Abedin, Kazi Md Fazlul Karim, Mollah Al Amin, Md Shafiul Islam, Md Ziaul Haque Mollah, Sikder Kabirul Islam, Md Firoz Alam, Omar Faruk, Sunil Baran Karmakar, Farid Akter, S Sahiduzzaman Chayon, Abdur Rahman Tapan, Major (retd) Sakibuzzaman Khan, SM Ahsanul Kabir (Biplob), AHM Ataur Rahman Reza, Ghulam Kibria Milton, Md Atiqur Rahman, Khandaker Benozir Ahmed, AKM Safiullah, Shah Alam, Md Delwar Hossain, Ms Jesmin Akter and Md Shafiqul Haque.
