The Criminal Investigation Department on Saturday said that the agency launched an investigation against S Alam Group chairman and managing director Mohammed聽Saiful Alam, his wife and two sons for allegedly laundering Tk 1,13,245 crore under the Money Laundering Prevention Act 2012.
The money was laundered through fraud, over invoice and under invoice and hundi, said a CID press release issued on Saturday.
CID鈥檚 Financial Crime Unit primarily found S Alam, his wife Farzana Parvin, and their two sons Ahsanul Alam and Ashraful Alam involved in money laundering.
The agency claimed it had started inquiries into money laundering following the laundering Act and rules.
S Alam and the other suspects received permanent residencies cancelling the Bangladeshi citizenships in one day and smuggled money to Singapore, Malaysia and European countries through themselves, their people and organisations and bought movable and immovable properties, and run business, according to CID collecting data from various sources.
S Alam had established Canali Logistics Pte Ltd worth Tk 245.74 crore in Singapore.
Apart from this, Alam had laundered Tk 95,000 crore after taking loans from six banks using fake documents, and through forgery in the name of exporting and importing goods, the CID said.
The CID said that S Alam had laundered Tk 18,000 crore through offshore banking by opening nameplate Shell Company.
The S Alam Group, allegedly with the help of state agencies, made hostile takeover of six banks since 2017, ousting several founding shareholders and directors in the process.
These banks are Islami Bank, Social Islami Bank, First Security Islami Bank, Union Bank, Global Islami Bank, and Bangladesh Commerce Bank.
On May 7, the Bangladesh Bank also handed over the control of National Bank to individuals connected with the S Alam group.
Except for FSIBL and BCBL, the BB dissolved boards of four banks under direct control of S Alam and the NBL recently and appointed independent directors to these banks to manage them.
Massive irregularities and loan anomalies occurred in these banks in recent years, BB officials said.
Since then, a large sum of money was allegedly siphoned off from the bank through various anonymous companies.
S Alam Group has been accused of engaging in widespread irregularities within the six banks, particularly in recruitment and loan disbursement.
BB governor Ahsan H Masur at a press conference on August 28 described the S Alam scam as the largest bank heist in the history, with the group allegedly siphoning off around Tk 2 lakh crore ($16.6 billion) using state mechanism.
鈥業 am unaware of anyone else globally who has looted banks on this scale and in this manner,鈥� he said.
鈥楾he assets in S Alam鈥檚 name and under anonymous ownership will be sold to compensate depositors. No one should buy any of these assets now,鈥� Mansur said.
These loan irregularities have pushed these banks into a severe liquidity crisis, leaving its current account with Bangladesh Bank in the red and forcing it to rely on central bank bailouts.
Most of the irregularities by the S Alam Group occurred allegedly under the watch of Bangladesh Bank, with some of its senior officials鈥� involving in the misconduct.
S Alam Group got into trouble as Sheikh Hasina resigned as prime minister and fled to India on August 5 amid a student-led mass uprising.
The Anti-Corruption Commission has started an inquiry against Saiful Alam over allegations of laundering money to Singapore.
On August 20, ACC formed a three-member inquiry team led by its money laundering wing deputy director Md Nur-E-Alam to probe the allegations, confirmed a director of the commission.
On August 26, the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit sought the bank account details of 13 people, including seven brothers of S Alam Group鈥檚 Saiful Alam.
The BFIU sent a letter to all banks in this regard on Monday.
The letter asked the banks to provide it with all necessary information including the name of parents, national identity number, and all kinds of account transactions.