The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC0 on Tuesday filed a case against BNP Vice chairman M Morshed Khan, his wife Nasrin Morshed Khan and son Foysal Khan for their alleged involvement with laundering USD 3,95,00540 and HKD1,36,45,583 to Hong Kong during 2000 to 2011.
ACC deputy director Moniruzzaman Khan filed the case with Gulshan Police Station at about 5:25pm accusing the former foreign minister, his wife and their son of committing offences under money laundering act, an ACC official told reporters.According to the first information report (FIR) of the case, Morshed Khan and his family members are the owners of Far East Telecommunications Ltd at British Virgin Islands.
They opened seven multi-currency accounts with Standard Charted Bank (Hong Kong) Ltd, including a USD current account, a USD savings account, four fixed deposited accounts and an investment fund account, said the FIR.
It said that in June 1994 Hachisan Telecommunications (Bangladesh) Ltd opened an USD current account and an USD savings account authorized by Morshed Khan and Asgor Ali. The ACC, however, did not find any Asgor Ali during its investigation.
In 1995, Hachisan Telecommunications (Bangladesh) Ltd changed its name as Far East Telecommunications Ltd.
The FIR said that USD current account (447-1-031644-8) have no balance before September 30, 2004. On October 7, 2004 to September 30, 2011 USD 35,552.94 was deposited in the account. During the period, USD 8000 was withdrawn from the account.
It also said that USD 2,54,28,243.62 was deposited at USD savings account (447-1-032885-3) from September 30, 2004 to September 30, 2011 and USD 2,36,49,582.88 was withdrawn during the time.
Fixed deposited account (317-3-506198-5) was opened on September 9, 2000 and the account closed on May 30, 2005. During the time a total of USD 20,39,911.73 was withdrawn.
Fixed deposited account (317-3-519169-2) was closed on May 14, 2007 which was opened on April 30, 2007. USD 4,00,000 was withdrawn from this account.
USD 60,00,000 was withdrawn from the fixed deposited account (317-3-519169-2), which was opened on June 8, 2006 and closed on July 16, 2007.
The FIR further said that the people were purchased a huge number of business shears and bonds worth of around HKD 4,905.56, according to the last update, on October 10, 2011.
Of the accounts, Morshed Khan operated a USD savings account and a HKD savings account with Standard Chartered Bank (Hon Kong) Ltd.
His personal USD and HKD savings accounts opened on October 16, 2000, before October 16, 2011 the accounts balance is USD 16,453.35 and 1,27,305.08, the FIR said
Morshed Khan’s son Faysal Khan also operated two savings accounts like his father. The accounts opened in 2011.
The ACC official said that the commission has collected the information from Hong Kong through Mutual Legal Assistant Requests (MLAR) through the attorney general office.
Earlier, in 2008 a special court that deals with corruption suspects sentenced former foreign minister M Morshed Khan to 13 years in jail and Tk 10 lakh or he will have to stay another year on twin charges of obtaining illegal wealth and concealing information about assets.
Meanwhile, the ACC filed two separate cases against third class employee of Chittagong Customs House, Jahangir Alam and his wife Rafeya Begum alias Nazma Haider Rafia for embezzling Tk about 2.5 crore by amassing wealth from unknown sources.
ACC deputy director Md Mosharraf Hossain filed the cases with concern police station in Chittagong on Tuesday.
Earlier, the commission at a meeting on Monday gave approval to file the cases. – Staff Reporter
