The ACC has recovered 20.41 lakh Singapore dollars siphoned off by Arafat Rahman Koko, youngest son of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, from Singapore.
Ghulam Rahman, chairman of the Anti-Corruption Commission, made the disclosure at a regular press briefing at its Segunbagicha headquarters Thursday afternoon.
The ACC boss said the money, sent back by the Singapore authorities, was deposited on Thursday to the stolen recovery account of the anti-graft watchdog at Ramna Corporate Branch of the Sonali Bank.
Talking to The Daily Star, Barrister Mahbub Uddin Khokon, a counsel for Koko, termed the money recovery as a politically-motivated incident.
In 2008, the ACC revealed that Koko has foreign currencies worth around Tk 11.43 crore deposited in a Singapore bank but he concealed its information in his wealth statement submitted to the anti-graft watchdog.
With the help of Singapore government the ACC had come to know that Koko has 20.61 lakh Singapore dollars and 2.61 lakh US dollars.
It also informed that the son of the former prime minister owns a firm named ZASZ Trading and Consulting Pvt Ltd in Singapore jointly with a Singapore national, who is Koko’s paid service agent.
The ACC had told journalists that whole amount was deposited in the joint account of that firm at different times in 2005.
HOW MONEY WAS TRANSFERRED TO KOKO’S ACCOUNT
According to Singapore government’s information given in 2008, Koko registered the trading and consulting firm in that country with the help of a few associates and the Singaporean service agent on April 10, 2004.
China Harbour Engineering sent to the firm’s account 9.20 lakh SGD and 8.30 lakh SGD on May 6 and 31 and another 8.29 lakh SGD on August 1 in 2005. The ZASZ received another 3.03 lakh SGD from another source on October 6 the same year.
Singapore government’s information says Koko transferred 8.30 lakh SGD from the account of ZASZ to another place on July 29, 2005.
The Singapore government informed the ACC about the matter through its Attorney General’s Office following Bangladesh government’s request for mutual legal assistance.
The Bangladesh government sent the request under the UN Convention against Corruption to help find information regarding wealth amassed through illegal means and corruption and restrain use of that money by identifying the corrupt person.
Source: The Daily Star
