Money Laundering
Fresh charges against Koko, Saimon framed:
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Court Correspondent
A Dhaka court yesterday framed fresh charges against Arafat Rahman Koko, son of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and Ismail Hossain Saimon, son of former shipping minister late Akbar Hossain, for money laundering. Hearing on charge framing against BNP Senior Vice President Tarique Rahman and his business partner Giasuddin Al Mamun will also be held today in connection with another money laundering case. The charges against Koko and Saimon were reframed under Money Laundering Prevention Act 2002 to avoid legal complications as they were indicted for activities which occurred before 2009. Earlier on November 30 last year, the same court indicted Koko under Money Laundering Prevention Act 2009. Judge Mozammel Hossain of the Special Judge's Court-3 framed the charges after Special Public Prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain Kajol submitted an application. The court set June 15 for the next hearing of the case.
In his petition, Kajol pointed out the Supreme Court's (SC) verdict on February 9 which said the case against Tarique and Mamun will run under the Act of 2002 as the offences were committed before 2009. It is also applicable to Koko's case, he mentioned. Earlier the court recorded statements of 18 prosecution witnesses, including the complainant Deputy Director Abu Sayeed of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC). The ACC filed the case against the duo on March 17, 2009 under the Money Laundering Prevention Act, 2009 on charge of siphoning off Tk 19.7 crore to Singapore.
According to ACC's deposition the accused had laundered money they received as payments from China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd and Siemens Bangladesh Ltd (SBL) for helping them win government contracts. China Harbour got a Tk 351 crore contract to set up New Mooring Container Terminal while SBL a Tk 239 crore contract to supply and install equipment for Teletalk, the state-run cell phone operator. The ACC pressed charges against Koko and Saimon on November 15, 2009.
Koko had earlier gone abroad for his treatment while Saimon has been absconding since filing of the case. Meanwhile, hearing on charge framing against Tarique and Mamun in connection with a money laundering case will be held today. The same court will hear arguments from the prosecution and the defence. Earlier the SC rejected Tarique's writ petition challenging the legality of the case.
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=188964
Background:
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Tareq zia N koko
WB-UNODC publication cites Koko's bribery case
Bss, Dhaka
A World Bank-UNODC publication mentioned the alleged embezzlement of several million dollars by former prime minister and BNP chief Khaleda Zia's younger son as an example of stealing national assets.
Titled "Asset Recovery Handbook," the publication was released two days ago in Vienna and obtained by BSS. It was prepared under the Stolen Asset Recovery (StAR) Initiative of the WB in association with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
The 270-page book cited Arafat Rahman Koko's case on page 53 and page 196 while discussing the issues relating to prosecution of accounting and establishing jurisdiction for legal proceedings.
On both pages, it referred to the bribery case of Siemens from where Koko allegedly embezzled several million US dollars, costing the national interest.
On page 53, the handbook said Siemens and its subsidiaries in Argentina, Bangladesh and Venezuela bribed public officials to secure government contracts.
"Bribes were accounted for as payments to consultants, who subsequently channelled them to the public officials," it said.
It is also mentioned in the book that Siemens pleaded guilty to the charges of conspiracy and violations of books and records and internal controls provisions in a plea agreement that resulted in a $450 million.
The book on page 196 goes further with the reference of the action of the US Department of Justice stating: "In 2009, the US Department of Justice filed a confiscation action against bribery proceeds paid (in Singapore, with US currency) by a foreign company to the son of the former prime minister of Bangladesh".
Earlier, media reports said the US authorities on January 8, 2009, moved a legal process in a court in the District of Columbia to recover funds worth $3 million, allegedly obtained by Koko from Siemens and kept with a Singapore-based bank.
[The Daily Star too published a report on the scam on December 23, 2008, carrying the headline "Foreigner spilled the beans".]
The World Bank publication was released two weeks after a special Judge Court of Dhaka framed charge against Koko and Ismail Hossain Saimon, son of former shipping minister late Akbar Hossain in the same case.
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed the case on March 17 last year with the Kafrul Police Station of the city accusing Koko and Saimon of laundering $9 lakh 32 thousand 672 and Singapore $ 28 lakh 84 thousand 604.
The issue of repatriation of siphoned off money surfaced in Bangladesh during the past military-backed interim administration in 2007- 2008 when officials said they estimated millions of dollars were smuggled out by influential but corrupt people.
The corruption suspects at that time, however, were forced to return $129 million.
Former World Bank vice president Praful C Patel at that time said Bangladeshi assets had either been stolen or smuggled outside the country for the last several years while "corruption had eaten up nearly three percent of the country's growth rate".
The Breton Woods institution released the handbook to guide developing countries recover money stolen by individuals and institutions while it was prepared by an international team of experts, drawing on the experience of a wide range of countries and legal traditions.
Designed as a quick reference, it describes approaches to recovering proceeds of corruption located in foreign jurisdictions, identifies the difficulties that practitioners are likely to encounter, suggests strategic and tactical options to address the challenges, and introduces good practices.
The WB publication suggested strengthening of international cooperation for recovering such stolen assets.
It said the embezzlement of national assets costs developing countries $20 to $40 billion every year while developing countries over the past 15 years could recover only $5 billion.
Source:
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=166515
Related:
Warid Deal
Koko owns Dubai house under fictitious name
He also put $2m in Hong Kong banks, steps taken to sell property to pay govt; Babar minted $7m out of the project
Zayadul Ahsan
Investigation into the controversial Warid Telecom deal has revealed how Arafat Rahman Koko, Khaleda Zia's younger son, ripped off millions to buy property in Dubai and build bank deposits in Hong Kong.
Latest interrogation has also revealed that former home minister Lutfozzaman Babar had actually made a huge fortune of $7 million from the deal.
Steps have already been taken to sell a house in Dubai that he illegally bought in the name of the son of Ali Asgar Lobi, a former BNP lawmaker, to deposit $1.5 million with the exchequer as part of the rip-off amount of the Warid Telecom. Lobi's son received instruction from his family yesterday to sell the house.
Sources said Warid had obtained its operating licence in Bangladesh in exchange for a $15 million graft deal with the Hawa Bhaban clique. The investigators have come to know that the money was shared by Koko, Lobi and Babar.
With his share of the booty, Koko bought the Dubai house and deposited another $2 million with two banks in Hong Kong. During interrogation, Babar said he retained $7 million of the deal -- $3 million he kept with him and the rest with his brother. The former state minister for home promised to pay back $4.5 million, but the rest $2.5 million has been sent abroad through his brother. Babar also confessed that another $3.5 million is lying with Lobi. But Lobi, who is now in jail, has said he has only $1 million with him.
Warid owned by Sheikh Nahayan Mubarak Al Nahayan of the UAE obtained its operating licence in 2005 and the deal was since then seen with suspicion as the group paid a small amount -- only $50 million -- to the government for the deal.
Throughout the BNP-led four-party rule, Koko remained a low-key figure in the Khaleda family and let his elder brother Tarique take a leading role in politics and corrupt private deals. But staying out of public scrutiny, Koko made his fortunes from various shady and illegal businesses. His only publicly known business was of billboard advertisement, which also smacks of allegations of monopolising.
Meantime, the government exchequer has received Tk 435.45 crore until June 6 that the joint forces recovered from different corrupt suspects and business groups involved in shady deals.
Sources said another Tk 100 crore is expected to be deposited by end of this week.
James Finlay, a British tea company, deposited Tk 237.65 crore to the Bangladesh Bank on April 19 as part of the money taken out against sell of its tea estates in Sylhet. MGH Group owned by Anis Ahmed Gorky deposited Tk 23.80 crore on April 23 as part of a deal to return the money he kept from Khaleda's son Tarique Rahman.
Bashundhara Group returned Tk 77 crore on May 28. Kazi Saleemul Haque, a director of Prime Bank, returned Tk 20 crore on May 30 on behalf of Babar, who received the money from Bashundhara Group Chairman Ahmed Akhtar Sobhan as part of the deal to save his son from a murder case. On the same day, Mohammad Shahjahan of Kabir Steel Ltd of Chittagong deposited Tk 7 crore. Controversial Chittagong businessman S Alam, who had close link with Tarique, deposited Tk 60 crore on June 6 and on the same day, Amin Ahmed Group deposited Tk 10 crore.
Source:
http://www.assetrecovery.org/kc/node/4b3d1eee-202c-11de-a9b1-0d536ac86161.0;jsessionid=E2B7B0EA81E3DE0B23E9F174246647D0
Arafat Rahman Koko. preview. The younger son of former Bangladeshi Prime
... accuses
Koko of laundering funds he had received in bribes to
Singapore worth
... Arafat Rahman Koko, younger son of former prime minister and BNP
...
son of pig
Arafat Rahman Koko. Back to Bangladesh Lootpat Nationalized Party
.... son
Koko had ensconced a cool sum of $ 200 million in
Singapore Bank is
...
Dec 19, 2008
... Arafat Rahman Koko, youngest son of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, has foreign
currencies worth around Tk 11.43 crore deposited in a
Singapore ...
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