After the 5 August uprising, Ex-Detective Branch (DB) Chief Mohammad Harun Or Rashid first went into hiding. However, even before that, on 1 August, sensing the fall of the Awami League regime, Harun sent his family members to the US. At the end of August, he himself fled from Bangladesh to India and later moved to the US using a passport of that country.
Harun currently lives with his family in Dallas, USA. Sources said he has several businesses there.
Harun's family is living a luxurious life in the US with the money laundered out of the country. In addition, he has business establishments in at least six countries around the world. He has invested in a residential hotel in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia through a friend of his so-called “uncle” Jahangir. In addition, he has numerous assets in his name or in pseudo name, including a five-star hotel in Dubai, and a gold business with ADC Saiful's brother Rifat.
Harun's wife moved to America around 2007 with a “Diversity Visa”. A few days later, Harun also went there. Documents say that Harun too has US citizenship. He travels abroad using a regular passport instead of an official Bangladeshi passport.
Sources said that Harun bought a house worth $5 million in the name of his wife in the New Hyde Park area of New York State, USA. At that time, the FBI identified and investigated the huge financial transactions by Harun’s wife. Around Tk1,532 crore in a US bank account belonging to his wife has been frozen on the recommendation of the FBI. Harun has not yet been able to recover that money. However, Harun did not bother much about it.
Multiple responsible sources have said Harun laundered money to the US in a planned manner. Both Harun and his wife are US citizens, so Harun laundered money by taking advantage of the loopholes in the law there. The investigation has shown that Harun laundered very little money directly from Bangladesh to the US. The money laundered by Harun was invested in at least six countries. The money from these countries went to the US legally.
Harun set up his own money exchange to facilitate money laundering abroad. Its Dhaka office is in Azad Products Street in Purana Paltan. It has branches in Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Singapore and Istanbul. Harun used to launder money under the guise of this money exchange business. This business was run by two brothers of former ADC Saiful Islam. One lived in the country, while another, Rifat, was based in Dubai. He also has a gold business there.
Apart from the United States, Harun has a huge amount of money in at least five other countries. Information about Harun’s assets in Dubai, United Arab Emirates has been found. Harun also has two luxurious flats in Dubai and Sharjah. He also has a restaurant in Sharjah.
He has assets in Malaysia too. Both Harun and his wife have invested in second home schemes there. They have a money exchange in Malaysia. They have a restaurant in Kuala Lumpur.
A source at the CID confirmed that Harun has an account in a bank in Switzerland. However, he opened it as a US citizen. That is why detailed information about that account is not available.
Information about Harun’s investments in Turkey has also been found. It is also known that Harun has taken citizenship of that country as an investor. Harun’s name is in the country’s database of foreign investors.
In this way, this corrupt government official, while serving as a police officer, amassed a huge amount of money through corruption and looting, most of which he laundered abroad.
ACC files 3 cases against Harun
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has filed three separate cases against Harun, his wife and brother on charges of acquiring illegal wealth. The cases were filed at the ACC’s Dhaka Integrated District Office on 17 December last year.
In the case statement, former DB chief Mohammad Harun Or Rashid has been accused of acquiring illegal assets worth Tk17.51 crore, his wife Shirin Akhter of Tk10.76 crore and his brother ABM Shahriar of acquiring illegal assets worth Tk12.96 crore. Consequently, a court ordered the seizure of Harun’s assets.
The court also ordered the freezing of 10 of Harun’s and 11 of Shahriar’s bank accounts.
Among the seized assets which belonged to Harun, there is a building worth Tk3 crore on 7.45 katha land in Uttara, Dhaka. There is another building worth Tk3 crore 97 lakh on 10.36 katha land in Gulshan. Apart from this, there is a semi-paka tin shed house, a one-storey building in Khilkhet and another semi-paka tin house. Harun has a flat on the 2nd floor of a 7-storey building in Sector 10 in Uttara and another flat on the 6th floor of a 6-storey building in Joar Sahara area. Along with these two flats, Harun has a 5 katha plot in Asian City. In addition, shares of three companies belonging to Shahriar have been blocked.
Regarding DB Harun, the petition said, “The accused, Mohammad Harun Or Rashid, has been charged with acquiring and possessing assets worth around Tk17.51 crore outside his known sources of income. The accused is trying to transfer the movable and immovable properties owned by him, which if he can do, will defeat all the purposes including confiscating the property in favour of the government as part of the sentence after the trial of this case by the court. It is absolutely necessary to seize the immovable properties and freeze the movable properties in the interest of proper investigation and establishment of justice.”
Although his assets in the country have been seized, Harun’s properties abroad are beyond reach.
Bd-pratidin English/ ANI
