Two importers sued for laundering Tk 2.04cr

The Chattogram Customs House has filed two cases against four owners of two companies over charges of laundering money involving Tk 2.04 crore in the name of importing goods.

The cases were filed on Friday with Bandar Police Station in the port city against Dewan Bulbul Islam and Nur Al Mamun Rubel, owners of N Islam Enterprise, and Abdul Barik and Kabir Hossain, owners of Grambangla Food Corporation.

The cases came a year after Bangladesh Bank and the National Board of Revenue instructed the customs to file the cases after a primary investigation.

Md Nooruddin Milon, deputy commissioner of customs, told The Daily Star that the instruction prompted them to set up an anti-money laundering section and conduct further investigation. The cases were filed as the companies were found engaged in money laundering.

“We have already collected information about other money laundering incidents in the past two years,” he said, adding that cases would be filed against them as soon as possible.

According to a central bank report and customs documents, in May 2018 the authorities seized two consignments of cigarettes worth Tk 12.77 crore. The importers, Grambangla Food Corporation, had declared its consignment as raw materials of textile goods and N Islam Enterprise as machinery. 

The two companies had opened letters of credit for Tk 11 lakh to import the raw materials and machinery and had laundered Tk 2.04 crore through non-banking channel or hundi, case documents showed.  

Customs sources said the tax for importing machinery and textile goods is a maximum 3 percent whereas it is up to 600 percent for cigarette.

The report suspected that the two consignments were imported by the same gang as two different companies imported them from Singapore’s Sri Vaari international and through the same shipping agent, Fastex Logistics Maritime.

The report also said the companies exist only on papers and their documents related to house rent, trade licence, address, bank accounts, letter of credit and credit report of suppliers were all forged.