The Criminal Investigation Department of the police has prepared charge sheets in 17 money laundering cases against Beximco Group vice-chairman Salman F Rahman and 27 individuals linked to his business interests.
Investigating teams of CID鈥檚 Financial Crime Unit found that about $97 million was laundered abroad by the suspects in the name of foreign trade, CID chief Sibgat Ullah, who is an additional inspector general of police, said at a press conference at its headquarters in Dhaka on Sunday.
He said that the charge sheets would be submitted to the appropriate courts soon.
Referring to the investigations, Sibgat said that Salman and his associates used 17 corporate entities between 2020 and 2024 to launder the money.
The investigators found that those corporate entities were used to open letters of credit or export contracts through Janata Bank鈥檚 Motijheel branch, but the export proceeds were never repatriated to Bangladesh.
Instead, the amounts were diverted to different countries through RR Global Trading, a Dubai-based company owned by Salman鈥檚 son Ahmed Shayan Fazlur Rahman and Salman鈥檚 brother Ahmed Sohail Fasihur Rahman鈥檚 son Ahmed Shahryar Rahman.
Export proceeds worth $97 million did not return to the country, although the export proceeds should return to the country within 120 days of shipments, said the CID chief.
CID stated that the export proceeds were diverted to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, the UK, the USA, Ireland and other countries through RR Global Trading.
Seventeen money laundering cases were filed with the Motijheel police station on September 17 and 18 regarding the matter.
The CID chief said that they had approved to file charge sheets in the cases after investigation against 28 individuals, including Salman, Shayan and Shahryar, and 19 organisations involved in the money laundering.
CID confirmed that Salman, currently in custody, was shown arrested in these cases, while another accused, Wasiur Rahman, managing director and shareholder of Autumn Loop Apparels Limited, was arrested in July.
Salman, former private industry affairs adviser to the ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, was arrested in August 2024 and is now in jail in connection with various cases filed after the fall of the Awami League regime on August 5, 2024 amid a student-led mass uprising.