Embezzling Funds: ACC sues Prof Yunus, 12 others

The Anti-Corruption Commission yesterday filed a case against Grameen Telecom Chairman Prof Muhammad Yunus and 12 others for misappropriating about Tk 25 crore of the company's Workers' Profit Participation Fund.

ACC Deputy Director Gulshan Anowar Prodhan lodged the case with its integrated district office.

The other accused in the case are Grameen Telecom Managing Director Nazmul Islam, directors Ashraful Hasan, Naznin Sultana, Parvin Mahmud, Md Shahjahan, Nurjahan Begum and SM Huzzatul Islam Latifee, Sramik-Karmachari Union President Kamruzzaman and General Secretary Firoz Mahmud Hasan, lawyers Zafrul Hasan Sharif and Yusuf Ali.

According to the case statement, the company's 108th board meeting, presided over by Prof Yunus on May 9 last year, decided that a bank account would be opened to distribute Tk 437 crore among the employees as per its agreement with the Grameen Telecom Sramik Karmachari Union.

The Grameen Telecom MD and the president and the secretary of the employees' union, Kamruzzmaan and Firoz Mahmud, signed the agreement on April 27 last year and the account was opened on May 8 with the Dhaka Bank's Gulshan branch.

"Since the bank account was opened after the signing of the agreement, the account number was not supposed to be mentioned in the agreement. But the account number was mentioned in it, meaning the agreement was fake," reads the case statement.

"The Grameen Telecom chairman and the board members in association with each other produced the fake agreement as an authentic one to help misappropriate money and thus committed a crime under the money laundering prevention act," it adds.

An amount of about Tk 364 crore was distributed among 156 employees between May 25 and June 12 last year. However, about Tk 26.22 crore was transferred to another account with Dutch-Bangla Bank between May 17 and May 30 last year.

"The money was transferred to another account without any written or verbal approval from the employees. From that account, the money was transferred to the personal accounts of the employees union leaders and lawyers," the case statement says.

The ACC found that about Tk 1 crore was lawyers' fees and the rest of the money was misappropriated by the employees union leaders and lawyers.

Contacted, Grameen Telecom MD Nazmul yesterday said no money was misappropriated.

"We have done everything following the settlement agreement," he said.

Meanwhile, the High Court yesterday ordered "a six-month status quo" on the judgement of the Labour Appellate Tribunal that justified the demand of profit sharing by 106 former workers of Grameen Kalyan, another non-profitable and charitable company established by Prof Yunus.

The HC also issued a rule asking the Labour Appellate Tribunal and the 106 workers to explain why the tribunal's verdict should not be declared illegal.

The HC bench of Justice Zafar Ahmed and Justice Md Bashir Ullah came up with the order and rule following a writ petition filed by the Grameen Kalyan challenging the legality of the tribunal's verdict, Golam Rabbani Sharif, a lawyer for the workers, told The Daily Star.

Supreme Court lawyer Barrister Abdullah Al Mamun said the judgment of the tribunal will remain ineffective for six months following the HC order.