TDS Desk:

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police has decided to launched an investigation against Bashundhara Group chairman Ahmed Akbar Sobhan and his son and also the group’s Managing Director (MD) Sayem Sobhan Anvir over alleged embezzlement, land grabbing and laundering thousands of crores of taka.

The Financial Crime Unit of the CID will be conducting the investigation, said a press release issued by the agency Thursday (5 September).

According to the release, while a portion of the proposed Bashundhara Residential project has been approved by Rajuk, a significant portion is allegedly built on public and government land without necessary approvals.

The Bashundhara Group has been accused of illegally occupying a total of 1,016 acres of land, including 216 acres of Bhawal Raj Estate, worth Tk1.50 lakh crore through East West Properties Ltd.

Bashundhara Group had allegedly bought land at Tk20-25 lakh per bigha by adopting fraudulence. It borrowed more than TK42,000 crore from banks showing the price of per katha land at Tk3 crore.

According to CID sources, the business group allegedly laundered money to Dubai, Singapore, Cyprus, London, Malaysia and other countries.

Bashundhara Oil & Gas (Keraniganj, Dhaka) allegedly imports bitumen worth approximately Tk2,000 crore from abroad through trade based money laundering – the process of disguising the proceeds of crime and moving value through the use of trade transactions in an attempt to legitimise their illicit origins.

This imported bitumen is then allegedly supplied to various parts of Bangladesh under the control of a powerful syndicate that manipulates prices.

The group’s influence in the gold market is also being investigated.

“Bashundhara Group MD Sayem Sobhan Anvir is allegedly one of the key players in Bangladesh’s gold smuggling syndicate. This syndicate has been accused of creating artificial crises in the country and destabilising the gold market on various occasions,” reads the media release.

Basir Uddin, the head of CID’s Financial Crime Unit, told that such activities as trade-based money laundering and extortion fall under the Money Laundering laws.

He said the CID would investigate any complaints related to these allegations.