Bangladesh News

EARTH Foundation has fleeced over Tk 30.63 crore out of as many as 76 businesses that supplied various goods and equipment to the organisation, said the affected business owners.

Khan Mohammad Khalid Hossain, a fraud convict who served two years’ prison term before, is chairman of EARTH (Effective Assistance and Rehabilitation for Tormented Humanity) Foundation.

Khalid amassed huge wealth through embezzling security deposits made by suppliers under tender agreements and illegally selling the supplied goods on the wholesale market, said investigators.

Moreover, instead of paying the suppliers for the crores of taka worth of goods delivered, Khalid extorted money out of them in exchange for payments.

Many of the business firms that supplied goods to EARTH Foundation are now on the verge of going bankrupt. Owners of five such businesses said since a huge amount of money is tied up with the foundation, they cannot pay off bank loans and are resorting to job cuts.

Humayun Kabir, owner of Shamim Enterprise, a supplier of EARTH Foundation, said, “I was cheated by EARTH Foundation and I am broke now. I am very close to shutting down my business.”

“I lost everything — like a victim of river erosion — after EARTH Foundation cheated me out of my Tk 1.6 crore,” said Abu Nur Ahmedullah, director of another firm named Noor and Noor Company.

Owners of the affected businesses urged the government to form a high-powered inquiry committee and recover the swindled money.

Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) arrested Khalid on November 18 last year and arrested Syed Mohiuddin Ahmed, one of the directors of the foundation, on December 3.

So far, Khalid has admitted to swindling Tk 35 crore, said officials of Rab, who are investigating six cases filed against Khalid and several others cases related to the EARTH Foundation hoax.

Only Tk 5 lakh has been found so far in three bank accounts in Khalid’s name and investigation is still underway to locate the rest of the money, the Rab officials added saying that they suspect the money is in the country, stashed away in bank accounts under false names.

Khalid confessed to Rab that his wife Aleya Begum and one of the directors of the foundation obtained chunks of his illegal money, Rab officials said. Both Aleya and the director are on the run now, they added.

Rab has evidence that Khalid has collected Tk 1.33 crore in cash and cheques as extortion from various businesses, said a Rab source.

Around Tk 10 crore worth of properties including landed properties belonging to Khalid have been detected by Rab, added the source.

“We will mention Khalid’s properties in the charge sheet expected to be submitted soon and mention a few other [properties] next month,” added the source.

Khalid now faces 32 cases filed with different police stations in the city while Syed Mohiuddin Ahmed is accused in 14 cases.

Investigators said that Khalid and his close aides used to deceive the suppliers by inviting tenders in national newspapers for supplying goods and equipment for various projects of the EARTH Foundation. After receiving security deposits from the suppliers and within hours of receiving the supplies, they made a quick buck by selling those on the wholesale markets at lower rates.

They never paid the suppliers for the supplies and embezzled their security deposits, said the investigators.

In a Tk 250 crore deal with Shamim Enterprise, the foundation purchased an X-ray machine worth Tk 3.61 lakh. But the next day, the machine was sold to a store at Mitford for Tk 1.6 lakh, said sources adding that the foundation sold operation lights, bed and other medical equipment received from their suppliers to wholesale markets at Mitford or BMA Bhaban in the city.

Twenty thousand rims of papers (each rim supplied at Tk 1605 by Shamim Enterprize) were sold by them in city markets within hours after supply of those with at Tk 1000 per rim, the interrogators said.

Asked about the notable persons involved with the foundation are involved with the fraudulences, Major Ehsan said they are yet to find involvement of any notable person attached with the foundation in any kind of fraudulences.

Several other people like EARTH Foundation directors Mohiuddin Almajhi and Mohammad Shahidullah and Khalid’s wife Aleya Begum are involved in the cheating.