The National Board of Revenue on Wednesday asked the office of the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms to immediately suspend sales and transfers of shares by seven business groups.
The revenue board鈥檚 Central Intelligence Cell sent a letter to the registrar鈥檚 office in this regard.
The seven business groups are鈥擝angladesh Export Import Company Ltd (Beximco); Bashundhara; S Alam; Nassa; Summit; Orion; and Third Wave Technologies Limited (Nagad Limited).
The revenue board鈥檚 step will result in blocking the transfer of ownership of these business groups.
The Central Intelligence Cell in the letter said that the revenue board could temporarily seize assets of the groups to stop tax evasion under Section 223 of the income tax act 2023.
鈥楾here are allegations of financial irregularities, including tax evasion, against these business groups according to the ongoing investigation,鈥� it added.
The revenue board sought cooperation from the registrar office, saying it was very important to protect the national interest.
On August 22, the national revenue board began investigations against these businesses for their alleged accumulation of illegal assets and tax evasion.
It sought information about Beximco Group vice-chairman Salman F Rahman, Nassa Group chairman Nazrul Islam Mazumder, Summit Group chairman Muhammed Aziz Khan, Bashundhara Group chairman Ahmed Akbar Sobhan, Orion Group chairman Obaidul Karim and their associates.
The revenue board sent letters to different banks, financial institutions, Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission, National Savings Directorate and other related departments seeking information about, among other things, their bank accounts and stock market investments.
On August 15, the revenue board sought similar information about controversial businessman Saiful Alam, chairman of S Alam group, and his family members.
All these businessmen allegedly had close ties with the ousted Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government, and amassed wealth through illegal means using political connections. Salman F Rahman, currently in jail, was the private industry and investment adviser to Sheikh Hasina.
He was involved in bank scams and share market manipulation.
Numerous allegations, including money laundering and defaulted loans, surged against S Alam Group聽in recent times.
According to the recent media reports,聽the group withdrew around Tk 55,000 crore from Islami Bank聽alone, while it took more than Tk 1 lakh crore from several banks the group controlled.
The S Alam group established direct and indirect control over seven banks.
Nassa Group founder Nazrul Islam Mazumder, also former chairman of EXIM Bank, was a close ally of Salman F Rahman. He was also allegedly involved in bank scams. Nazrul Islam was arrested on Tuesday from Gulshan in the Capital.
Summit Group chairman Muhammed Aziz Khan is accused of being involved in various power sector irregularities. Aziz ranked聽2,545th out of 2,781 billionaires in the world聽in the Forbes World鈥檚 Billionaires List 2024, with wealth amassed from various sectors of Bangladesh and Singapore.
Bashundhara Group chairman Ahmed Akbar Sobhan is accused of land grabbing, amassing illegal wealth and concealing information about wealth.
The Criminal Investigation Department started investigating the Bashundhara Group chairman and his son, group managing director Sayem Sobhan Anvir, facing various allegations, including money laundering, fraud, cheating, and duty evasion.
Orion Group chairman Obaidul Karim is accused of bank and share market scams and irregularities in power sector.
Third Wave Technologies, technology partner of Nagad, took a loan of Tk 500 crore from Exim Bank allegedly using Nagad鈥檚 trust fund鈥攎oney held in customer accounts鈥攁s collateral. About Tk 317 crore of this amount remains overdue. When the money was used as collateral for the loan, it created a shortage in Nagad鈥檚 account, meaning it has virtually created more e-money than real money kept in its customers鈥� accounts or 鈥榯rust fund鈥�.
This violated the mobile financial services regulations, which require e-money to be backed equally by real money in the customer accounts.
Since its inception, Nagad has faced complications with its licensing. Earlier on August 21, Bangladesh Bank dissolved Nagad鈥檚 current board of directors and appointed an administrator to manage the company.