ACC charges former BNP lawmaker, his wife

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) yesterday pressed money laundering charges against former BNP lawmaker Hafiz Ibrahim and his wife Mafruza Sultana.
ACC Assistant Director Md Ibrahim, also the investigation officer of the case, submitted the charge sheet to the Metropolitan Magistrate's Court in Dhaka showing eight people as prosecution witnesses.
On August 16 last year, the ACC filed a case against Hafiz and his wife for laundering $1.75 lakh to Singapore.
Later on, the couple got bail from the High Court till submission of police report on the case.
According to the First Information Report (FIR) of the case, the money was allegedly paid to a joint account of the duo to help Siemens Bangladesh Ltd win a deal of supplying core telecommunication equipment to Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Ltd (BTCL).
The couple accepted the amount in their joint account opened at a branch of Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore between 2005 and 2006.
Although the ACC has traced a transaction of more than $ 8 lakh in the account in the period 2005 to 2008, its primary inquiry found that $ 1.75 lakh was deposited as bribe to abet Siemens in getting the BTCL job to establish the state-owned Teletalk mobile phone company.
In his wealth statement submitted to the ACC, Hafiz, who was a member of two parliamentary standing committees in between 2001 and 2006, did not mention anything about the account.