Shamima Nasrin allowed to rejoin Evaly as director, HC-appointed board resigns

The High Court (HC) has ordered the inclusion of Shamima Nasreen, her mother and brother-in-law on the new board of directors of controversial e-commerce platform Evaly. 

The HC bench of Justice Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar passed the order late last month.

The court-appointed five-member board of directors, led by former Justice HM Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik, submitted their resignation to the court on Thursday.

It was on 10 August that the former Evaly chairman appealed to the court-appointed board for restarting the infamous platform's operations.

She had asked to include herself, her mother and her sister's husband on the board of directors in the application.

Also, out of the 50% shares of the company, the former chairman had already transferred 20% shares in the name of her mother and relative, the application further added.

As per the instructions of the HC, the new board of directors has been asked to appoint an official from the commerce ministry as an independent director for Evaly. 

The ministry official cannot hold any position lower than that of a joint secretary. The new board will also have a representative from e-cab. 

Shamima Nasreen and her other two family members will be inducted as members of Evaly's management board at the meeting on 22 September. 

Launched on 16 December 2018, Evaly pretended to be driven by dreams to build an Amazon or Alibaba of Bangladesh, grew too big riding on a dangerous business model and offering abnormal discounts to attract huge customers, taking advances from them and delivering products months later. 

It was apparent that the firm was depending on the fresh flow of advances from customers to clear the previous bills and running the business was synonymous with increasing the liabilities of the firm, identical to a Ponzi scheme.

It all happened before the regulators, policymakers addressed the risk of the widening liabilities of the business and an increasing number of people being trapped there.

Following a petition filed by a customer, the HC on 22 September last year put a moratorium on the sale or transfer of all movable and immovable properties of Evaly.

The court also issued a ruling, asking why a liquidator should not be appointed to wind down the e-commerce platform immediately.

The court on 18 October 2021 formed a four-member new board to manage, control, and assess the liabilities of the e-commerce platform.

According to Evaly's own assessment, it has assets of only Tk121 crore, while it owes customers and merchants more than Tk1,000 crore.