Lawyer's six accounts frozen over receiving exorbitant fee

A total of six bank accounts of lawyer Yousuf Ali, a counsel for the Grameen Telecom (GT) Workers and Employees' Union, and his chamber have been frozen on charge of receiving a stunningly high fee of more than Tk120 million from his clients in a single case filed against Grameen Telecom.
In a press briefing on the Supreme Court premises, the lawyer said, "I came to know that all of my bank accounts have been frozen. I have three personal accounts. Two are my partner's accounts and one is my chamber's account. All the six accounts have been frozen. I had about Tk22.5 million in my chamber's account."
"Tk120 million is an imaginary figure. My clients have got a huge amount of money from the Grameen Telecom in an out of court settlement and I also got a big amount of fees from them," added the lawyer.
He said he had at least 100 clients who got more than Tk30 million. As per condition all those 100 clients have paid him more than Tk1.5 to 2.0 million as his fee.
He had received all the fees from them through account payee cheques, added the lawyer.
All the cases filed by Grameen Telecom Workers and Employees' Union against Nobel laureate Prof Dr Muhammad Yunus and his organisation Grameen Telecom had been withdrawn from different courts after the parties reached an out of court settlement over the claim of the employees.
On the same ground, the company bench of the High Court division of the Supreme Court on May 23 passed an order dismissing a petition filed by the employees seeking liquidation of Grameen Telecom.
More than 110 cases were filed against Prof Dr Muhammad Yunus and his organisation Grameen Telecom by the employees over their claim, said Barrister Mustafizur who appeared in the High Court hearing on behalf of the Grameen Telecom.
During the hearing of the case on June 30 this year the High Court bench of Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar said, "We have heard that the employees' lawyer was biased in exchange of money and the employees were forced to settle the case through compromise."

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