CID arrests six allegedly laundering money using MFS
CID Chief Mohammad Ali Mia urges Bangladeshis abroad to use legal channels to send their money home
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has arrested six members of a hundi syndicate that was allegedly laundering money using various mobile financial services (MFS).
"Several groups are laundering crores of taka using mobile financial services. We have arrested six of such a gang from Dhaka and Cumilla," CID Chief Mohammad Ali Mia said at a press conference at its headquarters in the capital on Tuesday.
The arrested are Mir Mohammad Kamrul Hasan Shishir, 28, Khorshed Alam, 34, Md Ibrahim Khalil, 34, Kazi Shah Newaz, 46, Md. Azizul Haque Talukder, 42, and Md Nizam Uddin, 35.
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A total of 11 mobiles, 18 SIM cards, one laptop and a tablet, were seized from the possession of those arrested.
Khorshed Alam owns a bKash distribution house named JA Enterprises in Laksham of Cumilla under which some 2000 agents or agent SIM-holders transact about Tk200-300 crore per month, the CID chief said, adding that they started to work on two of the agent SIMs having suspected transactions of Tk3 crore in the last six months.
"Later, we learned about 11 more such agent SIMs that were used for digital hundi."
The accused, in primary interrogation confessed they used several software and websites to commit their hundi easy and fast. They got help from several MFS agents, the CID chief added.
"It is the MFS companies who select their distribution houses and they must strictly monitor their distributors. If that does not happen, we will be forced to take stern action against the culprits," Mohammad Ali Mia said, and urged Bangladeshis abroad to send remittances through legal banking channels.
"Then the country will develop, and they [expatriates] will not be under the surveillance of law enforcement agencies," he added.
