Eight MLM firms struck off

The Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms (RJSC) has scrapped registrations of eight multilevel marketing companies for non-compliance with the law.
"We have found no existence of these firms at the addresses they gave us," Bijon Kumar Baishya, chief of RJSC, told The Daily Star.
The eight companies did not submit their annual reports to RJSC either, as stipulated by the terms of the registration, he added.
The companies were issued letters several times asking for compliance, but no response came. Finally, last week they were abolished.
Despite being struck off, the directors or shareholders of the eight companies will still have to clear their liabilities if they have any, the RJSC said in a notice.
This is third time since November last year that the government has cancelled the registration of MLM companies for failure to comply with the Companies Act 1994. To date, some 83 of the total of 128 MLM companies have lost their registrations.
Most of these entities got registrations during the last one decade to do business in sectors that include consumer goods, food and agro-products marketing, real estate, trading and transport.
Progressively, they adopted the MLM model, with many resorting to fraudulent activities that involved raising funds from public by promising hefty gains within a short time.
The latest to have been called out for their unlawful behaviour is Destiny Group, which is alleged to have misappropriated the funds raised from public through illegal banking activities.
RJSC earlier in a probe found funds in the region of Tk 3,800 crore missing from the company's accounts, together with evidence of money laundering by the top brass of the Destiny.
The Anti-Corruption Commission had already filed money laundering cases against the top officials of Destiny and its related concerns.
Last week, the cabinet approved a draft law to bring the MLM firms under a separate legal framework to protect the people from fraud.
Under the law, existing MLM entities will require obtaining licences within 90 days from the issuance date of the ordinance. The law also keeps provision of up to 10 years of imprisonment for violation of law.