Professor Muhammad Yunus.
The Anti-Corruption Commission on Thursday submitted a charge sheet against 14 people, including Nobel laureate and Grameen Telecom chairman Professor Muhammad Yunus, in a case filed on charges of misappropriating over Tk 25 crore from the company’s Workers Welfare Fund and money laundering.
The commission deputy director, Gulshan Anowar Pradhan, also the investigation officer of the case, submitted the charge sheet to the Metropolitan Senior Special Judge’s Court in Dhaka.
Earlier, ACC on Monday approved the charge sheet against Yunus, Grameen Telecom managing director Md Nazmul Islam, former managing director Md Ashraful Hasan, directors Parvin Mahmud, Naznin Sultana, Md Shahjahan, Nurjahan Begum, and SM Hazzatul Islam Latifi, lawyers Md Yusuf Ali and Zafrul Hasan Sharif, Grameen Telecom Sramik-Karmachari Union president Md Quamruzzaman, general secretary Firoz Mahmud, and representative Md Mainul Islam.
ACC also charged Jatiya Sramik Federation central committee office secretary Kamrul Hasan, who was not among the accused initially.
On May 30, last year, ACC filed the case against Yunus and 12 others for misappropriating over Tk 25.22 crore from the company’s Workers Welfare Fund.
According to the case statement, as per the decision of the 108th Board of Grameen Telecom held on May 9, 2022, in the presence of the chairman and managing director, an account was opened at the Gulshan branch of Dhaka Bank Ltd.
A settlement agreement was signed between the Grameen Telecom Employees Union and the company on April 27, 2022, for the distribution of dividends to the company’s employees.
Although the board meeting decision to open the account was held on May 9, the bank account was opened a day earlier, which was impossible.
According to ACC, with such a ‘false’ settlement agreement and the decision of the 108th Board meeting of Grameen Telecom, Tk 437 crore was transferred from the telecom bank accounts of United Commercial Bank Ltd to Dhaka Bank on May 10, 2022. Later, as per the decision at the 109th board meeting held on June 22, 2022, an additional payment of Tk 1,63,91,389 was approved.
ACC said Tk 26, 22, 06,780 was transferred to the accounts of the employees at Dutch-Bangla Bank on three different dates, but only Tk 1 crore was paid as an advocate fee.
The remaining Tk 25, 22,01,780 was misappropriated before the dividends were disbursed among the employees, ACC claimed to have found in its investigation.
The money was embezzled by CBA leaders, lawyers, and others in connivance with Yunus and other board members, the ACC said.
Yunus denied the allegations when the ACC in October grilled him for over an hour at its headquarters in the case.
Yunus and his Grameen Bank were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their pioneering work in 2006.
New Age