Bangladeshi MP under investigation had 34 Government contracts and 9,000 employees

Public Prosecution continues its investigations with the member of the Bangladesh Parliament on the issue of human trafficking and money laundering, and has ordered his continued detention pending further investigations.

A local daily reported that the Bangladeshi faces several charges – human trafficking, money laundering, fraud related to employment of workers in his company, violating the residence law and bribery. The man has denied all charges that have been filed against him except for ‘involvement in bribe’,  he has admitted to offering gifts and assisting his friends in what he called ‘several agencies’ and they in turn helped him complete the company’s transactions. The source stated the Public Prosecutor is expected to summon 3 persons whose names have appeared during the investigation – the names of people who the Bangladeshi said he offered gifts – are a Kuwaiti who manages a group of well-known businesses, another Kuwaiti who runs a factory and the third is a senior official in one of the ministries who has been suspended from work for 3 months and 50 per cent of his salary has been deducted upon a ministerial decision pending investigations.

Prosecution has also summoned approximately 20 employees working in the firm that is run by the accused, including the accountant, and listened to their statements regarding the salary payments for the employees. It is believed the accused runs three other companies.

The Prosecution has yet to summon people related to the case, whether witnesses or people whose names were mentioned during the investigation, except for the 20 employees, reported the daily. The source stressed the Prosecution’s investigations and the statements of the accused did not mention any names other than the 3 people referred to and who the prosecutor is going to summon to investigate on charges of accepting bribes.

Regarding the defendant’s statements, the source stated that the defendant mentioned during the investigation that he came to Kuwait in 1984 and has always respected the laws of the country. He added that he befriended a number of Kuwaitis at different levels, but he did not deal with any of them in any suspicious activity. The accused added he is a sitting Member of Bangladesh Parliament and so is his wife, and that he runs four companies in Kuwait which are involved cleaning workers. He added, he has 34 government contracts and is employing 9,000 workers through cleaning tenders. The defendant stated that while countries and local companies were unable to pay the salaries of their employees in recent months due to the coronavirus pandemic, he paid the salaries of his workers during the months of March, April, and May, and provided them decent accommodation by renting 42 buildings.

The source pointed out that the arrest of the accused came on the basis of security investigations with 5 Bangladeshis who stated that the accused had brought them from his country and they had been working in another company and did not pay their salaries – a company owned by a Kuwaiti. The Kuwaiti’s name is on the wanted list of persons by the Prosecution after it was discovered he is wanted by law in six financial fraud cases. It is believed the authorities are looking for him for almost a year. The security authorities arrested the man after investigations revealed he bought into the country thousands of workers from Bangladesh in exchange for huge sums of money in what is called ‘service charges’.