Seven persons face Tk 1,000cr money laundering case

The Customs Intelligence yesterday filed a case against 7 persons on charges of laundering about Tk 1,000 crore -- the biggest amount yet from Bangladesh -- through the import of alcohol, cigarettes and various consumer goods using fake documents and addresses.

Customs detectives filed the case at the Paltan Police Station after it unearthed an elaborate scheme by a syndicate to import consumer goods in the name of capital machinery in an operation that cut through duty evasion, money laundering and fraud.

Using fake documents, consumer goods worth Tk 1,040 crore were allegedly imported from China, according to Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate.

The syndicate had laid out a plan to import the items in 90 containers in favour of two firms that do not exist and even succeeded in bringing 78 of them.

The last 12 containers got caught by the CIID in March this year.

The 12 containers had 16,170 bottles of alcohols, 3.84 crore of cigarette sticks, 4,074 LED television sets and 281 old photocopiers -- the value of which come to Tk 134 crore.

Import duty of 600 percent is applied on alcohol, 500 percent on cigarette and 190 percent on televisions, according to the CIID. 

The importer, which said the items were capital machinery for poultry feed, declared the value to be Tk 50 crore, according to the CIID.

Only 1 percent import duty is applicable on capital machinery import. “None of the containers had poultry machinery,” said CIID, adding that the consignments were labelled that way to evade duty.

Detectives found that the containers were imported by two non-existent firms: M/S Henan Anhui Agro LC of Khilkhet and M/S Agro BD & JP of Keraniganj. And Rabeya and Sons, a clearing and forwarding agent, was responsible for clearing the consignments from China.

The importers had opened letters of credit with the IFIC Bank's Naya Paltan branch using fake addresses and photos.

A person named Abdul Motaleb, hailing from Patira under Dumni union of Khilkhet, Dhaka, was shown as the owner of the importing firms. But a photo of a person named Khorshed Alam was used as Motaleb to get VAT registration.

The importer opened a bank account at the Paltan branch of IFIC Bank and then an LC. The CIID said the bank account and LC were opened in connivance with some officials of the bank.

The alleged persons have committed money laundering related offence by evading duty and tax through smuggling of the goods in 12 containers, the CIID said.

The importer paid only Tk 50 lakh through banking channel, with the rest transferred by way of hundi.

The attempt to dodge duty through fake declaration is defined as smuggling in the customs law.

Sending money through illegal channel is also an offence under money laundering prevention law.

Bijoy Kumar Roy, assistant revenue officer of CIID, filed the complaint.

This is the biggest instance of trade-based money laundering case in the history of Bangladesh, said Moinul Khan, director general of CIID.

“We will now conduct detail criminal investigation into the case.”