S Alam Group’s 8 closed entities: ACC to freeze bank accounts
Staff Reporter :
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has issued a letter to freeze the bank accounts operated under the names of eight recently closed enterprises of controversial business conglomerate S Alam Group.
A senior ACC official told the media on Monday that the anti-corruption watchdog sent the letter to the general manager of the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) on Sunday.
On 24 December, S Alam Group announced the closure of eight factories in Chattogram.
The factories are sugar processing plant S Alam Refined Sugar Industries; steel processing plants S Alam Cold Rolled Steels and Infinity CR Strips Industries; corrugated iron and steel product manufacturing units S Alam Steel, S Alam Cold Rolled Steels Limited, Cheman Steel, and Galco Steel; and the bag manufacturing plant S Alam Bag Limited.
These establishments have remained closed since 25 December.
According to officials familiar with the matter, the ACC move comes to stop any possible fund transfer from the accounts under the names of these eight S Alam Group entities.
The ACC is investigating allegations of laundering $1 billion against S Alam Group Chairman Mohammed Saiful Alam and his family members to Singapore, the British Virgin Islands, Cyprus, and other countries.
On 19 December, a court ordered the freezing of 125 bank accounts belonging to the S Alam Group chairman and his family members.
These accounts hold a total of Tk226,549,190. Withdrawals are prohibited from these accounts, but deposits are still allowed.
