Ten RMG exporters launder Tk300cr: CIID

Staff Reporter  :
Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (CIID) unearthed the incident of money laundering worth Tk 300 crore by ten apparel exporters.

The exporters laundered the amount by using fake documents of 1,234 challans in recent times, the CIID alleged in press release issued on Monday.

The exporters are Progga Fashion Limited, Fashion Trade, MDS Fashion, Hong Kong Fashions Limited, Three-star Trading, Fortune Fashion, Pixi Knitwears Limited, Stylise BD Limited and Eden Style Tex.

Demanding exemplary action against the offenders, the leaders of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) said that the owners of the factories are not the real exporters and they tarnish the image of the industry.

According the press release, the incident of the laundering came to light after the CIID found a disparity between the bill of export and Exp of these ten exporters.

The CIID also mentioned these ten companies had forged their bill of export to use the Export permission of other companies. During its investigation, the directorate found evidence that these ten exporters fabricated 1,234 challans.

With these 1,234 challans, around $35.36 million (equivalent to Tk 300 crore), were supposed to be paid against 9,121 metric tonnes of products. But no such money arrived in the country.

The companies mentioned the weight of each t-shirt as 500-1,000 grams in its bill of export. However, each kilogram of knit fabric can produce at least 3-6 long-sleeved L-size t-shirts, it said.

Going through the documents of the exporters, the CIID found out these exporters used forged documents to export t-shirts, tops, ladies’ jeans, trousers, baby sets and polo shirts to the United Arab Emirates, Russia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Australia, Canada, Thailand, Sudan, France, Slovenia, Panama, Tonga, Oman, Brunei and Nigeria in order to launder the money.

C&F agents in these cases were – MAJ Shipping Corporation, A&J Trade International, GR Trading Corporation, NH Corporation, KRS C&F Ltd, Pan Bengal Agency, Porag SMS Ltd, Riyanka International, and M/s AK Enterprise.

Md Fakhrul Alam, Director General of the CIID, said they are preparing for taking legal action against the accused exporters and the launderers would not be spared away.

Fazle Ehsan Shamim, Vice-President of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA), told The New Nation, “The accused exporters are not the real businessmen.

They are tarnishing the image of the apparel industry by doing such heinous activities. We demand exemplary punishment against them.”

Earlier, the CIID had discovered the case of smuggling of Tk379 crore by 4 apparel exporters located in Chattogram in the same way and it filed money laundering cases against them.

The four businesses also exported goods by using fraudulent documents, but they did not repatriate foreign exchange accordingly, the CIID said.