The Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) has said it has found ‘suspicious transactions' in the bank accounts of Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority (IDRA) chairman M Mosharraf Hossain.
The intelligence organisation has forwarded the intelligence report to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to take necessary steps over the issue.
In a compliance report submitted to the High Court, the BFIU also stated that M Mosharraf Hossain maintains 30 accounts in five banks in his name and in the names of his interested concern. Of them, about Tk 406.1 million was deposited from 2017 to March 2021 in 18 accounts.
“Jannatul Mowa, the wife of Mosharraf, opened two FDRs in the name of ‘Muhammad Shahidullah & Company’ on December 7, 2020, depositing cash amounting to Tk 5 million, which could be linked to allegations of bribery by Mosharraf,” said the BFIU report.
At the time of opening the two accounts, the condition of the authorisation given by the ‘Muhammad Shahidullah & Company’ in favour of Jannatul Mawa was violated.
Separate five-member boards of trustees have been formed to conduct the gratuity fund and provident fund of three organisations owned by Mosharraf and Jannatul Mawa. Mosharraf Hossain is the chairman and his wife Jannatul Mawa is the secretary of all the boards of trustees.
However, the amount that has been deposited (about Tk 329.1 million) in the three provident funds and three gratuity funds is not consistent with the transactions (about Tk 36.0 million) conducted in the accounts run by the institutions, the report said.
Depositing money in the provident and gratuity funds from various sources, withdrawing cash from the accounts, maintaining the accounts with the single signature of Dr Mosharraf and transferring amounts from the accounts for making FDRs in his own name doesn’t appear to be normal, the report also read.
Following a writ petition, the then High Court bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Md Mostafizur Rahman on November 9 in 2021 directed the ACC and BFIU to dispose of a representation that sought an enquiry into the allegations of corruption, money laundering, abuse of power, misrepresentation and breach of trust by chairman of the IDRA Dr M Mosharraf Hossain.
The ACC and the BFIU had been asked to inform the court within 30 days of their steps taken in this regard. Complying with the court's asking, the BFIU submitted the report to the High Court last week.
Abu Saleh Mohammad Amin Mehedi, an investor in the stock market, filed the writ petition in November last year as public interest litigation.
Barrister Khan Mohammad Shamim Aziz placed the report on behalf of BFIU, while Barrister Mustafizur Rahman Khan and Advocate Sumaiya Ifrit Binte Ahmed appeared in the court on behalf of the writ petitioner.
The report has been submitted to the High Court bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder
And Justice Kazi Md Ejarul Haque Akondo as the earlier bench does not exist due to the elevation of Justice M Enayetur Rahim to the Appellate Division of the SC, said Barrister Shamim Aziz.
Earlier on September 30, last year the same High Court bench following another writ petition issued a ruling upon the respondents to explain in four weeks as to why the appointment of Dr M Mosharraf Hossain, FCA, as the chairman of the IDRA should not be declared illegal, as it violated the Section 7(b) of the IDRA Act, 2010.
