Bangladeshi surrenders in Canada, gets bail

Zulfiquar Ali Bhuiyan

Bangladesh-born Canadian citizen Zulfiquar Ali Bhuiyan, who is facing allegations of bribery with employees of Canadian SNC-Lavalin to secure a contract for Padma bridge project, surrendered to the authorities in Canada on Tuesday.
The 48-year-old businessman surrendered to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's (RCMP) national division and secured a bail.
The Canadian Globe and Mail reported that the RCMP division had been probing a now disbanded unit of the Canadian engineering firm for more than two years.
The Ontario-based unit allegedly conspired to bribe to bag a supervision contract for construction of the six-kilometre-long bridge.
Bhuiyan was charged by the Mounties in September with violating Canada's foreign bribery law, the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act.
He returned to Canada on the weekend to fight the charge, his lawyer Frank Addario said after a brief court hearing Tuesday morning.
“He travelled halfway around the world to voluntarily face charges under an untested law, just to clear his name,” Addario said.
Bhuiyan is one of the five persons to be charged by the RCMP in connection with the suspected corruption plot.
Three employees of SNC-Lavalin have already been charged under Canada's foreign bribery act. They are former senior executive Kevin Wallace, Ramesh Shah and Mohammed Ismail.
The fifth person is former state minister for foreign affairs Abul Hasan Chowdhury.
Addario described Bhuiyan as a businessman who operates, among other ventures, a garment factory.
Prosecutor Andrew Wiese declined to explain how Bhuiyan figured into the      alleged conspiracy, citing a court-ordered  publication ban from a preliminary hearing in May.
According to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) that investigated the scam, Bhuiyan has been living in Canada for more than 15 years.
“Bhuiyan met Syed Abul Hasan Chowdhury through one Ataul Haque Jahangir requesting him to arrange a meeting with former communications minister Syed Abul Hossain for the consultancy job of Padma multipurpose bridge,” said an ACC official.
Chowdhury demanded 1.25 percent (around $300,000) from Bhuiyan as commission, to which SNC Lavalin officials had agreed, said the ACC official. Later Abul Hossain introduced Bhuiyan as his cousin to different people saying the latter was working on the project.
Afterwards, SNC Lavalin's representatives Ismail and Mostofa visited Chowdhury's office in Dhaka and met Bhuiyan. Bhuiyan introduced them to Nixon Chowdhury as his brother-in-law saying he had good contacts with Rafiqul Islam, project director for the Padma bridge project. Nixon also demanded 2 percent as commission, said the official.
The SNC Lavalin officials agreed to Nixon's commission as well. Afterwards, with Abul Hossain Chowdhury acting as the mediator, Md Ismail, Md Mostofa and Bhuiyan met former communications minister Syed Abul Hossain at the Bridges Division Building, where former secretary of the department for bridges Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, the chief engineer, and the project director were also present.
Bhuiyan was also present at the meeting between Abul Hasan Chowdhury, Kevin Wallace, Ramesh Shah, Md Mostofa, Stuart Davis and Farukh Chowdhury.
“To investigate the allegations against Bhuiyan, a number of people including Nixon Chowdhury, Abul Hasan Chowdhury, Md Mostofa, Md Ismail and Bhuiyan himself need to be questioned,” said the ACC official asking not to be identified.
The proofs Royal Canadian Mounted Police gathered against Bhuiyan need to be collected from Canada as well, the official added.