Not returning crores: BIPD Chairman
Here are legal complications: Fareast Finance
Received a letter regarding: Central Bank
Fareast Finance and Investment Limited (FFIL) will not be able to refund Tk 1 crore 8 lakh 35 thousand of the expired FDR of Bangladesh Institute for Professional Development (BIPD) without getting the statutory and necessary documents. If BIPD provides the relevant documents then FFIL can refund the amount. Mohammad Ali Raziab, Managing Director of FFIL, said this in response to BIPD's complaint. In a press conference yesterday, FFIL was accused of not returning Tk1 crore 8 lakh 35 thousand of expired FDR. BIPD Chairman Ehsan Khosru, Director Qazi Md. Mortuza Ali and General Secretary AKM Ehsanul Haque made this complaint. BIPD Chairman Ehsan Khosru alleged that BIPD had opened six FDR accounts worth a total of Rs Tk1 crore 8 lakh 35 thousand in FFIL from 2016 to 2018. All the FDRs have expired on different dates and FFIL has not made any payment to BIPD. Not even paying dividends. However, the FFIL authorities have claimed that these allegations of BIPD are not correct. When asked about BIPD's complaint, FFIL's Managing Director Muhammad Ali Zaryab said, "It is a very old incident. This problem arose before I joined this organization. The allegation that FFIL is not returning BIPD's FDR money is not true. Firstly - there is a legal complication here as Institutions with directors' interests.
Basically- the fixed deposit accounts of the public limited company BIPD were opened in violation of the law without receiving the necessary documents such as Memorandum and Articles of Association, Form-XLL, Schedule-X, etc., and without doing proper KYC. Kazi Mortaza Ali has not provided the documents and expressed his opinion that there is no need to submit the above documents despite the humble request to provide the above documents through the letter for deciding monetization through regularization of current business accounts in 2021.
Accounts will not be regular unless KYC is duly completed subject to receipt of the above documents and monetization of irregular accounts is not appropriate. Even though the accounts were opened irregularly by the previous management, the responsibility of regularizing the accounts rests with the current management. He said, Kazi Md. Mortuza Ali was appointed Independent Director and Chairman of the Board Audit Committee of FFIL on 16/07/2018, yet why he could not encash the deposit at that time? Why can't he take this money? Who then prevented it? What was the problem?
The ACC has a case against several former directors for alleged irregularities in FFIL and its subsidiaries. A more extensive investigation is said to be ongoing. The ulterior motives for sending complaint letters to various regulatory agencies and holding press conferences without submitting the necessary documents are questionable. In the press conference, BIPD chairman said that they have not taken any action despite giving 56 letters so far. Even after 2020 did not respond to any letter. BIPD also resorted to Bangladesh Bank to intervene in this matter and pay the dues. On June 11, 2019, the first letter was given to the Governor of Bangladesh Bank. The last letter was sent on April 17 this year. So far 36 letters and emails have been sent to the Governor, Deputy Governor, and Financial Integrity and Customer Service Department of Bangladesh Bank. But to date, no reply has been received. We also did not know if there was any reason for non-response.
He said, in a direct interview on February 19 of this year, Director of the Department of Financial Institutions and Markets (DFIM) of Bangladesh Bank, Md. Amir Uddin mentioned that given the order of His Majesty's Court dated January 17, 2021, in the context of Company Matter No-243/2020, the BIPD Deposit in FFIL was blocked. Chairman of BIPD claims that this statement of the central bank is not reasonable and acceptable at all. The suit is organized between FFIL and PFI Properties Limited. BIPD is not involved in this case in any way. The court order has no direction to freeze the account of BIPD. Even after clarifying the matter to the Central Bank, Bangladesh Bank has not taken any action or given us any reply till now. When asked about this statement of BIPD chairman, Amir Uddin said, "It is an old incident. I am not in this department now. So I don't know about the latest update on this incident. You will know if you talk to the current director. The Chairman of BIPD claims that this statement of the central bank is not reasonable and acceptable at all. The suit is organized between FFIL and PFI Properties Limited. BIPD is not involved in this case in any way. The court order has no direction to freeze the account of BIPD. Even after clarifying the matter to the Central Bank, Bangladesh Bank has not taken any action or given us any reply till now.
When asked about this statement by BIPD chairman, Amir Uddin said, "It is an old incident. I am not in this department now. So I don't know about the latest update on this incident. You will know if you talk to the current director.Talking about this, the current director of the Department of Financial Institutions and Markets (DFIM) Asaduzzaman Khan said that this is an old problem. We received a letter. Can't see what's in the letter yet. I will see and take action.The chairman of BIPD also said in the press conference that on December 20, 2022, and August 2, 2023, the Department of the Ministry of Finance issued letters to Bangladesh Bank to investigate the non-payment of BIPD by FFIL and take necessary legal action. Even though more than 8 months have passed since this letter, Bangladesh Bank has not taken any action in this regard or informed us.
He said that the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission issued a letter on March 23, 2022, to FFIL with instructions to take measures to pay the amount due to BIPD. FFIL also defied this directive.
ZH
