Thousand crores of taka smuggled thru’ hundi

Some in Kolkata, some in Paris

Staff Correspondent : In September 2022, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the police arrested 16 people on the charge of smuggling money abroad through mobile banking. After questioning them, the agency came to know that they had smuggled Tk 207 million in 4 months. The means of money laundering were development, cash, rockets and means.
According to CID data, $7.8 billion (Tk 75 thousand crores in Bangladeshi currency) are being smuggled by hundi traders annually.
Hundi’s activity has increased amid the ongoing dollar crisis. ACC has received several complaints in this regard. As some of the complaints are under the ACC schedule, they have taken legal action themselves.
However, since most of them are under the purview of CID, ACC has written to the accused recommending action against them. According to a source of ACC, Daily Industry learned about some such letters recently.
Chittaranjan Baral and his wife Papia Baral are dual citizens of Bangladesh and India. They have businesses in both countries. Chittaranjan’s wife and daughter live in India. There is information that Chittaranjan smuggled country’s money abroad with their help.
It is known that the ACC has found evidence of involvement in the hundi business against businessman Chittaranjan Baral of Shankharibazar in the capital. The agency wrote to the CID last November to take action against him. In the investigation, the ACC found that businessman Chittaranjan was smuggling money to India through Hundi, although he was living in Bangladesh.
In a letter to the CID, the ACC said, according to the information received during the undercover investigation, Chittaranjan Baral sent money abroad through hundi and money exchange with the help of visa agent Uttam Samaddar of Sri SriKalachand Geo Market in Dhaka’s Shankhari Bazar area. Chittaranjan Baral and his wife Papia Baral are dual citizens of Bangladesh and India. They have businesses in both countries. Chittaranjan’s wife and daughter live in India. There is information that Chittaranjan smuggled country’s money abroad with their help. Allegedly, the concerned persons have regularly carried out money laundering activities by illegally smuggling their own and others’ money into India under the guise of conducting business in Bangladesh. The person concerned with the complaint is not a government employee. Therefore, action is requested against them as per law.
Illegal customs bond facility and evasion of customs duty is one of the means of money laundering of businessman Zainal Abedin. It has several offshore companies in Hong Kong, Singapore and Europe. Through which he constantly laundered money and bought companies and several houses in different countries in the name of his family members.
In a separate letter last December, the ACC requested the CID to take action against the owners of the New Concern Group for alleged money laundering in various countries including Singapore, Hong Kong and Spain. The company accused the accused of money laundering in the name of over invoicing and under invoicing by opening LCs.
In the letter sent to the Additional Inspector General of Police Intelligence, it is said that the president and CEO of New Concern Group, Zainal Abedin Mollah, is a businessman from Narayanganj. He opened accounts in different banks of Bangladesh including Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited, Dhaka Bank Limited, First Security Islami Bank Limited, One Bank Limited and Al Arafa Islami Bank Limited in the name of Net Wire business. Later, with the help of the officers of those banks, he opened an LC, over-invoicing and under-invoicing and took loans of hundreds of crores of rupees from the bank through various irregularities and corruption. And they have been smuggling the loan money to various European countries including Singapore, Hong Kong and Spain through money laundering.
The complaint also said that businessman Joynal has been smuggling the money he earns through the knitwear business to Singapore, Hong Kong and Spain through money laundering instead of keeping it in the country. He has already accepted the citizenship of the country by investing the smuggled money in Spain. At the same time, he has become a donation member of the country’s traditional Barcelona club. Besides, through money laundering, he smuggled hundreds of crores of rupees to Paris, the capital of France, and opened a showroom there.
According to ACC, one of the means of money laundering of businessman Zainal Abedin is illegal customs bond facility and evasion of customs duty. It has several offshore companies in Hong Kong, Singapore and Europe. Through which he constantly laundered money and bought companies and several houses in different countries in the name of his family members. Zainal Abedin Molla and his family members own about 200 bighas of land in Sadar and Siddhirganj Mauza of Narayanganj.
In this regard, ACC Secretary (newly transferred) Md. Mahbub Hossain told that a letter was sent to the concerned departments to take action on complaints outside the ACC schedule. It is official work of ACC. A letter may also be sent to the CID in that regard.