EVALY Scam: Swindling was the goal all along
The outgoing board of directors of the controversial e-commerce platform Evaly yesterday submitted a report to the High Court, alleging the company's sole intention was to embezzle money.
In the report, it said Evaly was established through fraud and its only objective was to collect and embezzle money by duping people.
The HC-appointed five-member board, led by Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury Manik, also submitted the relevant documents regarding the members' resignations to the bench of Justice Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar.
The board's lawyer Morshed Ahmed Khan submitted them in compliance with the court's August 24 order.
"We have resigned from the board of directors as we have completed our duties. Our responsibility was to prepare an audit report on the company and form a new board of directors," Justice Shamsuddin Choudhury Manik told The Daily Star.
"We have said in the audit report that Evaly has been established through fraudulence. Its only intention was to collect money from people through fraudulence and to embezzle their money. There are no documents on how much money has been collected and refunded by Evaly.
"Crores of taka had been transacted by Evaly but there are no specific accounts, statements or documents in this regard. From this, it can be assumed that Evaly may have laundered money."
He added, "We, however, did not declare Evaly bankrupt, as new people can invest money in the e-commerce platform in order to run it. We have appointed five members to form the [new] board of directors for Evaly, in line with the High Court directives.
"The new directors include a representative from the commerce ministry, another from the E-commerce Association of Bangladesh, its former chairman Shamima Nasrin, her mother and her brother-in-law."
Justice Manik, a former judge of the Supreme Court's Appellate Division, also said they decided to resign on Tuesday and did so yesterday morning.
The HC, on August 24, ordered the board of directors to include the e-commerce platform's former chairman, Shamima Nasrin, her mother and brother-in-law as its members.
The order said the board appointed by this court shall be at liberty to submit their resignation, and directed it to turn in a report after complying with the directive by September 25.
The HC bench delivered the order on this issue following three separate applications filed by Shamima Nasrin, her mother and brother-in-law.
In those, Shamima said they had found investors and wanted to run the company on their own. She also promised to pay back the money Evaly owes its customers and vendors after reviving the business.
The central bank found that Evaly's dues were Tk 404 crore as of the mid-March last year, including Tk 214 crore liabilities to customers.
Following a petition filed by Farhad Hossain, an Evaly customer, the HC on October 16 last year formed the five-member board to run Evaly in the absence of its jailed directors and to give the government a way to pay back the company's long line of creditors.
On September 22 last year, the company bench issued an injunction order restraining Evaly, which allegedly has liabilities amounting to over Tk 1,000 crore, from selling and transferring its assets until further order.
Shamima, who was arrested on September 16 last year during a drive at their residence in Dhaka's Mohammadpur in an embezzlement case, was released on bail from Kashimpur Women's Central Jail in Gazipur on April 22 this year.
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