Crest securities director Wahiduzzaman arrested
He was arrested in three cases filed against the brokerage house with Paltan police station on charges of money laundering and fraudulence
The Detective Branch of police has arrested Crest Securities Director Wahiduzzaman over embezzlement of shares and investors' money.
He was arrested from Khilkhet area in the capital on Tuesday morning, Javed Pritom, assistant commissioner of DB (Ramna zone), told The Business Standard.
Earlier on July 7, DB police arrested Crest Securities Managing Director Shahid Ullah and his wife Nipa Sultana over the incident.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
Shahid Ullah allegedly embezzled Tk18 crore and had intended to misappropriate all assets worth Tk100 crore from his nearly 22,000 brokerage clients, police said.
The beneficiary owner's (BO) accounts in the member firm of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) had Tk100 crore in securities.
Wahiduzzaman was arrested in the three cases out of five filed against the brokerage house with Paltan police station on charges of money laundering and fraudulence, the assistant commissioner of DB (Ramna zone) said.
In the last week of June, as soon as noticing irregularities of Crest Securities, the DSE – in consultation with the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) – took prompt action by freezing remaining assets of the company's owners and requested their travel restriction.
Later in a press conference, DSE Managing Director Kazi Sanaul Hoq told reporters that the owners of the frozen securities will get the opportunity to transfer them to a new BO account through the linking facility approved by the exchange and the regulator.
The bourse would also freeze and sell the DSE shares owned by Crest Securities, along with its brokerage licence, and compensate the cheated clients with the proceeds from the sales.
DSE also invited claims from Crest Securities clients to report what they have lost in the scam. Investors had already claimed over Tk16 crore until last week.
Crest Securities owners had mortgaged their shares of the exchange company to take loans from Social Islami Bank, according to sources.
The bank will not get priority in case of brokerage clients' claim settlements, said the DSE.
