Ex-army chief lands in jail in Destiny case

Destiny Group President Lieutenant General (retd) Mohammed Harun-Ar-Rashid, an ex-army chief, has been sentenced to four years in prison, while Managing Director Rafiqul Amin has been sentenced to 12 years in a case over embezzlement and laundering Tk1,861 crore.

A Dhaka court delivered the verdict on Thursday as 44 other accused in the case were imprisoned to different terms varying from five to nine years. The court also asked the authorities to form a committee to oversee compensation to victims who fell victim to the embezzlement.

Rafiqul Amin had already been behind bars for around ten years, while Harun-Ar-Rashid was on bail. After the verdict, they were sent to Keraniganj central jail, and were subsequently transferred to hospitals in Dhaka.

Thirty-nine of the convicts in the case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in 2012 are on the run, according to police.

The court also fined Rafiqul Amin Tk200 crore, and Harun-Ar-Rashid Tk3.5 crore. In default, Rafiqul will have to be in prison for three years more, while Harun six months.

"Allegations against Lt Gen Harun-Ar-Rashid have been proven beyond reasonable doubt," Judge Sheikh Nazmul Alam of Dhaka's Special Judge's Court-4 said in the verdict.

"He was the chief of the Bangladesh Army. He also participated in the Liberation War, and received the title of Bir Pratik. He has been awarded the minimum sentence for his contribution to the war of independence," the court noted.

Rafiqul Amin and Harun-Ar-Rashid were in the dock during the verdict. They were in a sombre expression the entire time.

Harun's lawyer M Mainul Islam said they are aggrieved by the verdict and will appeal against it with the High Court.

Destiny Group Chairman Mohammad Hossain was sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined Tk1.50 crore, while the group's vice-presidents Mohammad Gofranul Haque, Mohammad Saidur Rahman and Mezbah Uddin Swapan were sentenced to 10 years.

In the embezzlement case, the court listened to more than 202 witnesses for the state.

Wait for the full verdict

The court said Destiny Group's assets and bank deposits had already been frozen in favour of the state. All the shareholders and investors of Destiny Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited will have to be compensated from the fines collected from the convicts.

The government has been directed to form a committee in this regard.

A retired judge of the Supreme Court will lead the committee comprising a finance ministry official, a rural development and co-operatives ministry official, a deputy inspector general of police, a chartered accountant and the registrar of co-operative division.

Lawyers said the victims will have to wait for the full judgement – which is around 1,000 pages – as the full verdict is expected to clarify the process of compensation.

The timeline

On 31 July 2012, ACC lodged two separate cases with Dhaka's Kalabagan police station against Destiny Multipurpose Cooperative Society and Destiny Tree Plantation Limited on charge of embezzlement and laundering more than Tk4,119 crore.

After two years of investigation, ACC on 4 May 2014 submitted charge-sheets against 19 and 46 suspects in the cases. Some 12 accused including Rafiqul Amin were indicted in both the cases.

Recording of witness testimony is still going on in the tree plantation case.

The national graft buster in the charge-sheet of the Destiny Multipurpose Co-operative Society case noted that the accused cheated more than 8.5 lakh investors from July 2009 to June 2012.

During this period, the accused collected more than Tk1901 crore from the investors in the name of lending services, investment to non-profit organisations and opening new companies. From the deposits by the investors, the accused misappropriated more than Tk1,861 crore in the name of dividend, honorarium, salary and allowances.

According to the confessional statements to court by Destiny top officials, Destiny 2000 was struggling with the sales and reached the verge of collapse. In 2005, some 22 Destiny officials formed the multilevel marketing company "Destiny Multipurpose Co-operative Society Limited" to avert the business catastrophe.

Then the multilevel marketing company collected more than Tk1,900 crore from investors with offers of fictitious profit. Destiny 2000 subsequently teamed up with the multilevel marketing company, a large chunk of the multilevel marketing company's capital was transferred to several ventures under Destiny 2000.

Now the Destiny Multipurpose Co-operative Society Limited has only Tk50 lakh in its frozen bank account.