Tax Dodging: Customs seizes car 'used by tycoon Moosa'

Customs Intelligence yesterday seized a car, allegedly in possession of controversial businessman Moosa Bin Shamsher, from the city's Dhanmondi for importing it dodging duty.

Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (CIID), an agency under the National Board of Revenue, said it seized the Range Rover in the afternoon.

Officials went to Moosa's Gulshan-2 residence early in the morning to trace the vehicle. By then the car was sent to Dhanmondi to drop his grandchild to a school.

The CIID said the car was hidden at a Dhanmondi house of Moosa's relative and was seized from there.

Customs Intelligence had information that two vehicles with same number plate were being used for a long time.

During investigation, the agency found that the Range Rover was registered with the Bhola office of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority under the name of Faruquzzaman from Pabna.

Moinul Khan, director general of CIID, said the vehicle was registered against fake import documents. It was claimed that Tk 17 lakh was paid at a duty rate of 130 percent.

“This is highly suspicious,” he said, adding that 600 percent duty is realisable from the importer of the 3000cc car.

Some Tk 3.5 crore was supposed to be paid in duty for the car.

CIID said although the seized car was black, its registration document showed that it was white.

Detectives visited Faruzzaman's house, but did not find the vehicle.

Early yesterday, detectives went to Moosa's Gulshan house. Security guards there admitted that Moosa used the car to go to office.

CCTV footage from the house showed that the vehicle was sent to school. Moosa's grandchild returned home from school by another car around 2:00pm.

The Range Rover was later handed over to CIID at the Dhanmondi house of Moosa's relative.

CIID said it would now ask Moosa and Faruquzzaman to give their statements for the sake of probe.

“We will investigate the incident from the viewpoints of three laws related to dodging duty, money laundering and corruption,” said CIID DG Moinul.

Moosa is the chairman of manpower recruiting company DATCO.

Contacted, ATM Mahbub Morshed, deputy general manager of DATCO, said the chairman had been using the car on rent from Faruquzzaman since August 2015.

The chairman's family members also used the vehicle, said Mahbub on behalf of Moosa.

The businessman hit headlines after the Anti-Corruption Commission in 2010 had launched an enquiry into the allegation of siphoning over Tk 51,000 crore abroad. 

Moosa in his wealth report filed with the ACC claimed that he had $12 billion frozen in Swiss bank accounts and also owned about 1,200-bigha land in Savar and Gazipur.  In March last year, the ACC sued Moosa for allegedly furnishing false and baseless information in his wealth statement.