Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel laureate and chairman of Grameen Telecom, and 13 other individuals were charged by a local court with embezzling Taka 25 crore from the company and laundering it overseas.
The ruling was issued by Judge Syed Arafat Hossain of Dhaka Special Judge Court-4, rejecting the accused’s motion for discharge.
The accused, who are being held on bond in this case, were asked by the court to enter a plea of guilty or not after it had read the allegations. The accused responded by entering a not guilty plea and calling for justice.
Participating in the indictment hearing on June 2, public prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain Kazal asked for the laying of accusations against the defendants. On the other hand, the defense contended that the accused should be cleared of all accusations.
Today was the day the court was supposed to issue its ruling, having heard both sides.
The case involves 14 individuals who are accused: Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Laureate and Chairman of Grameen Telecom; Nazmul Islam, the Managing Director (MD) of the company; Ashraful Hasan, Naznin Sultana, Parvin Mahmud, Md Shahjahan, Nurjahan Begum, and Professor SM Huzzatul Islam Latifee; Md Kamruzzaman, the President of Grameen Telecom Sramik-Karmachari Union, and Firoz Mahmud Hasan, its General Secretary; lawyers Zafrul Hasan Sharif and Yusuf Ali; Md Mainul Islam, the Union’s representative; and Kamrul Hasan, the Office Secretary of the Jatiya Workers Federation.
On February 1, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) deputy director Gulshan Anwar and the case’s investigating officer filed the charge sheet against a total of 14 defendants.
On April 2, 2024, the Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge Court acknowledged the charge sheet submitted in the case and forwarded it to Dhaka Special Judge Court-4 for additional proceedings.
The 108th board meeting of the firm, chaired by Dr. Yunus, on May 9, 2022, decided to open a bank account at the Dhaka Bank Limited branch in Gulshan, according to the case records. The account was opened a day prior to the decision being made, it was discovered.
Using “fake settlement agreements,” more than Taka 26 crore was transferred to the account on various occasions. However, the accused embezzled about Taka 25 crore from the fund before even telling the employees that they would be receiving their portion of the profits from the company.
