Money laundering and various financial corruptions along with other incredible crimes of Nobel Peace prize winner Dr Muhammad Yunus have been found with specific and surprising evidence. People will be astonished if they know the detailed facts and evidence of how dire this money laundering and corruption is.
It will be a great injustice to the nation if Yunus does not disclose precisely how he has been laundering thousands of crores of Taka grabbed from the people of this country abroad. Besides, everyone needs to know how he has committed corruption of hundreds of crores in Grameen Bank, Grameen Telecom and other institutions.
Everyone knows that siphoning the wealth of the country abroad is a terrible anti-national act and none can do this except the enemy of the country. The crime of bribing judges and some government officials to get verdicts in his favor in several cases filed in the country's courts has been documented against him. In addition, by all the establishments managed by Dr Yunus, various types of oppressive activities have been carried out, including the violation of labor rights in medieval style, and the violation of human rights of workers and employees. There is arbitrariness, constant violation of the law and various kinds of scandals in the organizations he run.
We believe that if the information about his terrible money laundering, corruption and other crimes and violations of labor rights is revealed, like Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the demand for the cancellation of his Nobel Prize will rise all over the world. In the name of social business, he has siphoned off thousands of crores of Taka from the country to foreign countries and with that money he is doing various business including buying assets in different countries in his personal name. He also engaged the lobbyist to work against the national interest of Bangladesh abroad. If these facts are published, everyone will condemn this Nobel Peace Prize winner.
In 1997, Dr Younus received the license of Grameen Telecom and Grameen Phone from the then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Before taking the license, he promised the government that he wants to take the Grameen Phone license to change the fate of the poor people in the rural communities. He promised that the aim of this organization would be to provide services to the poor people and not for any profit.
Grameen Telecom was originally licensed as a non-profit organization. Although Dr. promised to change the fate of the poor people of the country with this license, he did everything he could to change his own destiny. Most of the shares of Grameenphone have been handed over to foreign companies at the expense of the country's interests. Many think that he later received the Nobel Prize in exchange for this deal. Because of such act of Dr Yunus, the Norwegian company Telenor is taking thousands of crores of taka as profit from Bangladesh every year.
Grameen Telecom currently owns 34.20 percent shares of Grameenphone through which Grameen Telecom receives a dividend of over Tk of thousand crore from Grameenphone every year. This not-for-profit company, formed under Section 28 of the Companies Act, had no share capital, no individual ownership. According to law, no dividend can be transferred to any other person or institution. But Dr. Yunus is embezzling thousands of crores of dividend of Gramin Telecom every year by illegally turning a few hands and siphoning the amount abroad in the name of social business.
Despite being a non-profit company, Grameen Telecom Limited is surely paying huge dividends every year to another organization called Grameen Kalyan, which is a violation of law. Grameen Telecom was registered as a limited company under section 28 of the Companies Act, 1994, having no share capital. They said their motive was to change the fate of the poor people of the country under the condition of not sharing any dividend among the members of the company. Yunus took over the license of Grameen Telecom. However Sections 28(1) and 29(1) of the Companies Act contain clear provisions of not conferring it to any member or person any right to the distributable profits of the company which are as follows:
"28". (1) If it is proved to the satisfaction of the government that any society capable of being formed as a limited company has been formed or is about to be formed for the promotion of trade, art, science, religion, charity or any other useful purpose and if the mentioned society derives its entire profits or other income from the mentioned applies or purports to apply for the furtherance of the object and prohibits the payment of any dividend to its members, provided that the Government may, by a license granted with the approval of one of its Secretary, direct that the name of the society without adding the word “limited” or “limited” to it, be registered as a limited company, and thereafter the said association may be registered accordingly.”
"29". (1) Where a company is a limited company by guarantee and has no share capital and is registered after the commencement of this act, no provision of the memorandum or articles of association of the company or any resolution of the company shall, for any reason other than the membership of any person, make it distributable to the company. The right to profit shall not be granted and if it is done the mentioned provision or decision shall be deemed null and void. "
Despite such clear legal provisions are mentioned, Grameen Telecom has been paying 42.65% of the dividend it earns every year to another company called Grameen Kalyan against its 34.20% stake in Grameenphone Limited. The reason for this is that during the establishment of Grameen Telecom, the company had taken a loan of Tk 53, 25, 62, 941. As per law only the mentioned amount is to be returned to Grameen Kalyan.
But against Tk 53, 25, 62, 941, Grameen Telecom has illegally paid more than Tk 5000 crore to Grameen Kalyan as 42.65% annual dividend, which was surely a violation of the above mentioned section 28(1) and 29(1) of the Companies Act. On 13/04/2011 these two companies signed an illegal agreement which stipulated that Grameen Telecom would pay 42.65% of its dividend every year to Grameen Kalyan. No agreement can be made contrary to the provisions of the Companies Act and the terms of the license. Such invalid contract has no effect. However, Grameen Telecom has been illegally paying such dividends to Grameen Kalyan for more than a decade before the 2011 agreement.
Since 2017, the amount of dividend received from Grameenphone has increased significantly and the amount of dividend paid to Grameen Kalyan has also increased. As of 2022, Grameen Telecom has so far paid more than Tk 5000 crore in dividends to Grameen Kalyan. But the loan of Rs 53.25 crore received from Grameen Kalyan is still unpaid. The auditors of Grameen Telecom had long ago warned the management in writing that the dividend paid to Grameen Kalyan was illegal. In a management report of 2017 regarding the payment of such illegal dividend, the auditors of Grameen Telecom mentioned-
"During the year, according to audit, Grameen Telecom received a dividend of Taka 8,080,912,158 against their holding of 34.20% in the shares of Grameen Phone Limited. Out of total receipt of dividend of taka 8,080,912,158, taka 3,446,672,270 was distributed to Grameen Kalyan as dividend, although Grameen Kalyan does not have any holdings in the shares of Grameen Phone Limited….
Recommendation: We recommend that these types of treatments should be discontinued; otherwise problem may arise in future.”
No one has any answer as to what Grameen Kalyan has done with the money that Grameen Telecom illegally paid to Grameen Kalyan as 42.65% of its dividend. First, Grameen Telecom has no legal authority to pay this amount from its dividend to Grameen Kalyan. This is completely illegal. Secondly, Grameen Kalyan has no legal right to receive this money. Thirdly, Grameen Kalyan could not provide information on where this money was spent by Grameen Kalyan. Besides, there is no rural welfare scheme on which this money can be spent. It has been revealed in the preliminary investigation that the money that was transferred to Grameen Kalyan above Tk 5000 crore is not in the hands of Grameen Kalyan. It has been siphoned off abroad in the name of social business.
On the other hand, the remaining dividend of Grameen Telecom, i.e. 57.35% of total dividend, was amunted to more than Tk 7000 crore. However, about 90% of that money has been transferred illegally. That money has passed through several hands and has been siphoned off abroad in the name of social business. With that money, Dr Yunus is doing a lot of business in his personal name including buying assets in different countries. Part of it was spent on lobbyists working against the national interest of Bangladesh abroad.
In addition to Grameen Kalyan, hundreds of crores of Taka are being paid illegally every year to Dr Yunus's other institutions, especially the Grameen Telecom Trust. An account prepared by Md. Nazmul Islam (current Managing Director) shows that between December 31, 2010 and August 22, 2013, Grameen Telecom had given a donation of Tk 1413.58 crore only to Grameen Telecom Trust, which in later years has increased to Tk of several thousand crore. Such illegally transferred money is siphoned off abroad in the name of social business after changing hands. The only beneficiary of this money abroad is Muhammad Yunus.
It is clear that despite Grameen Telecom being a non-profit and charitable organization according to company law and license, Yunus illegally embezzled about 10 thousand crore rupees from it and siphoned off abroad. But according to the company law, Younus can’t transfer even a single money from this company. Yunus can’t do that in favor of himself or in favor of any other person or organization. To hide the illegal siphoning off large amount of money from Bangladesh, Dr Yunus very cleverly hangs the signboard of social business in the outside world.
Dr Yunus laundered this huge amount of money from Grameen Telecom abroad by creating layering by transferring it to different companies. It is a serious punishable offense under Section 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2012.
Despite paying thousands of crores of Taka as dividend to Grameen Kalyan and transferring the remaining amount to other companies anonymously, Grameen Telecom has been manipulating annual returns by falsely stating that no dividend has been distributed, which is surely an offense punishable under Section 397 of the Companies Act.
Section 397 of the Companies Act reads as follows:
"397. If any person intentionally makes any information, statement or statement as to any physical matter in any return, report, certificate, balance sheet, statement or other document required under this Act or made for the purpose of any provision of this Act, which he knows to be false, he shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years and with fine, and the mentioned imprisonment may be of any kind."
According to the provisions of section 397 of the company law, the chairman of the board of directors of Grameen Telecom, Dr Yunus, and other members of the Board of Directors including the Managing Director can’t get rid of the responsibility for this crime. All of them have committed an offense punishable with imprisonment of up to five years under the said provisions of the Act.
@The report was published in Bengali on print and online versions of The Bangladesh Pratidin on March 14 and rewritten in English by Lutful Hoque
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