More than a dozen officials at Janata Bank’s Imamganj branch in Dhaka, Bangladesh, allegedly colluded with local business owners and executives to launder a total of around US$157 million abroad against 657 fake export bills.

Bangladesh’s Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (CIID) says the businessman at the centre of this trade-based money laundering (TBML) operation is chairman of Crescent Leather Products and Crescent Tanneries, M A Kader, who is now under arrest.

Investigation

The businessman’s arrest followed an investigation mounted by the CIID, a field office under the National Board of Revenue (NBR).

The CIID has also filed TBML cases against three other business executives: managing director of Crescent Leather and Crescent Tanneries, Sultana Begum; Rimex Footwear chairman Abdul Aziz, and its managing director, Litul Jahan Mira.

Bankers complicit

Cases have also been filed against thirteen present and former officials of Janata Bank, including a former manager, Mohammad Fakhrul Alam, and Zakir Hossain, who is now deputy managing director of Bangladesh Krishi Bank.

NBR chairman Mosharraf Hossain, Bhuiyan Mosharraf, said the money laundering cases filed against the business executives and bank officials are “trade-based”.