The complaint was filed with the Anti-corruption Commission (ACC) by a USA based telecom service provider WorldTel Holdings Ltd (WTH).

Chairman of WTH Lennert Borman, through his lawyer, filed the complaint saying the once powerful former state minister helped siphon Tk 46 crore off-shore from local banks through sheer forgery, and he used the police, telecom ministry, and Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission (BTRC) to accomplish the dastardly deed.

The lengthy complaint also alleged that former commerce adviser Barkatullah Bulu, controversial former chairman of BTRC Omar Faruq, and several others were also involved in the fraud.

It zeroed in on one Nayeem Mehtab Chowdhury as the key person in the entire process of graft, and alleged that miseries caused by the abuse of political influence and rampant corruption continued to dog WTH during the regimes of subsequent governments since it had obtained the license for providing telecom services in Bangladesh.

Nearly six years have passed since the license agreement between WTH and the Bangladesh government was signed on July 12, 2001.

But, WTH's Mauritius based subsidiary WorldTel Bangladesh Holding Ltd (WTBH) has been the victim of continued criminal activities of persons aided and abetted by multiple regulatory institutions in Bangladesh, the company complained.

Despite a change in the government on January 11, 2007 not one of these regulatory institutions came to WTBH's aid, rather the true majority shareholders of the company in Bangladesh had to face legal harassment from the swindlers, the complaint added.

Sources said on June 12, 2000 WTH of Bermuda formed WorldTel Bangladesh Limited (WTBL) under a shareholders agreement signed between March 24, 2001 and July 5, 2001. WTH's Mauritius based subsidiary WTBH was to hold the majority of shares of WTBL.

On July 9, 2001 three Bangladeshi citizens formed a British Virgin Islands based company named World Communications Investments Inc (WCII), which acquired the minority share of WTBL. As representatives of the minority shareholder, Nayeem Mehtab Chowdhury, a Bangladeshi citizen with residency rights in the USA, and Mirza Baber Beg, a Pakistani citizen with residency rights in the UK, joined the board of directors of WTBL on September 22, 2001 as nominees of WCII.

According to the schedule of shares of WTBL issued on May 24, 2004, WTBH had 1,684 shares or 56.7 percent of the shares, and WCII had 1,287 shares or 43.3 percent of the shares of WTBL.

WCII managed to buy the shares of WTBL in spite of having no bank account in Bangladesh at the time, which is an illegal practice. And it was possible because Nayeem used the influence of the then telecom minister Mohammad Nasim and the then state minister for planning Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir to get the illegal deed done, according to sources.

BABAR AND OTHERS' INVOLVEMENT IN WCII
WBTL sources said after the change in government through the 2001 election, Nayeem suddenly became 'a good friend' of Babar using the connection of the former state minister's alleged flunkey Badal.

WTBH officials said in January 2005 Babar helped Nayeem get Tk 15 crore loan from Sonali Bank and Tk 31 crore loan from the National Bank of Pakistan, forging the signature of WTH Chairman also WTBH President Sam Pitroda.

When the fraud became public and a case was filed by other directors of WTBH, Babar ordered an investigation against the plaintiff instead of Nayeem, and managed a written final report from the police by virtue of being the state minister for home affairs, which stated that there were 'mistakes in the facts of the case', a WTBH official said preferring anonymity.

"Babar arranged it to be accepted by the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court of Dhaka too," the WTBH official said.

Nayeem withdrew loans from the banks despite his membership on the board of directors of WCII being suspended, stripping him of the right to trade in the company's shares.

But he managed to get everything as he wished with the help of Babar, the WTBH official said adding that Nayeem also used Babar's influence on the erstwhile BTRC chief Omar Faruq to illegally obtain a permission to import equipment and to release them from the customs without any hassle.

WTBH officials also alleged that $3 million gathered by Nayeem, through forging the signature of Sam Pitroda, was siphoned off-shore under the guise of equipment import through a fake company named Starley Ltd of Bahrain. He also arranged to inflate the prices of the equipment on the invoices to facilitate quick siphoning of the alleged stolen money.

Ex-premier Khaleda Zia's nephew Shareen Islam Tuhin was also allegedly involved in the process under a deal for buying the imported equipment from ZTE, a Chinese company, which he used to represent in Bangladesh.

"The siphoned amount of money could be brought back to Bangladesh if Nayeem and Babar could be interrogated properly," a WTBH official said.

BABAR TRANSFERRED OFFICIALS OF RJSCF
Other board members of WCII in a letter on July 12, 2005 withdrew their nominations for Nayeem and Beg for the board of directors of the company, and also dismissed the two as their nominees on the board of WTBL.

Despite the dismissal, Nayeem and Beg claimed that the board of WTBL had issued 3,55,000 additional shares of WTBL to WCII, making WCII the majority shareholder of WTBL with 99.5 percent of shares.

But according to section 155(1) of the Companies Act 1994, issuance of new shares is prohibited without the consent of a general meeting of all shareholders.

In February 2006 WCII tried to file with the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms (RJSCF) the securities documents of the company regarding the loans taken from Sonali Bank and the National Bank of Pakistan, supposedly to buy equipment for WTBL.

But, RJSC on February 28, 2006 rejected the application, stating that Nayeem at the time was not connected to WTBL at all due to his dismissal from the board of directors. This position of RJSC however did not last for long, and it subsequently proceeded to register WCII as the 99.5 percent shareholder of WTBL, making it the controlling partner of the company.

Sources said when RJSCF refused to register WCII as the majority shareholder of WTBL, former state minister Babar, former commerce ministry adviser Barkat Ullah Bulu, and other vested interest groups close to Hawa Bhaban forced RJSCF to register WCII as the majority shareholder.

As the officials of RJSCF repeatedly refused to engage in illegal activities, they were quickly transferred with the influence of Babar, the sources added.

RJSCF sources said Babar then arranged appointments of new officials to RJSCF and the registration of WCII shares was completed within seven days.

RJSCF officials said Nayeem had no intention of doing business in Bangladesh, he just wanted to earn some quick illegal money which he did successfully.

BANKS' SILENCE ABOUT BABAR'S INFLUENCE
Sources said the banks, which provided large sums of loans to Nayeem without any proper justification, were influenced by some former lawmakers including Babar and some people close to Hawa Bhaban.

Pitroda, on learning of the forgery of his signature, wrote to Sonali Bank in a letter served on April 5, 2006 that he denounces the fraud and warned the bank that the majority shareholders had no knowledge of the loan facilities extended to Nayeem under the auspices of WTBL.

But, Sonali Bank did not carry out any investigation following Pitroda's letter.

A similar letter was sent to the National Bank of Pakistan on September 6, 2005 but that bank also did not carry out any investigation.

NAYEEM'S VERSION
Denying all allegations against Nayeem, one of his officials said the allegations submitted to the ACC are totally 'baseless' and 'unrealistic.'

He said the Bangladesh Bank repeatedly investigated the matter, but failed to find any financial crime.

The official also claimed that Nayeem invested Tk 73 crore in WTBL, and WTH invested only Tk 16 lakh, making Nayeem the majority shareholder of WTBL automatically.

He said if anyone demands the controlling share of the company he or she should go to a court to resolve the issue. He claimed that everything Nayeem owns is legal and proven to be so through investigations by different government authorities at different times.