Shakib Al Hasan. Photo: Collected
A Dhaka court has set November 17 as the date for submitting the investigation report in a case filed against 15 people, including former national cricket team captain and former member of parliament Shakib Al Hasan, on charges of stock market manipulation, fraud and money laundering.
The court of Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge Shahjahan Kabir was scheduled to submit the investigation report on Wednesday. However, the judge set a new date after the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), the investigating agency, failed to submit its report on that day.
The other accused in the case are Abul Khair (Hiru), deputy registrar of the Cooperatives Department, his wife Kazi Sadia Hasan, Abul Kalam Madbar, Kanika Afroz, Mohammad Bashar, Sazed Madbar, Aleya Begum, Kazi Fuad Hasan, Kazi Farid Hasan, Shirin Akhter, Javed A Matin, Zahed Kamal, Humayun Kabir and Tanvir Nizam.
The case was filed by Sajjad Hossain, Assistant Director of the ACC Head Office, as the plaintiff on June 17, 2024. The accused have been charged under Section 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2012, Section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1947, and Sections 409/420/467/468/120(B)/109 of the Penal Code.
The charges in the case reveal that the accused manipulated the stock market by artificially increasing the price of certain shares through illegal series transactions, fraudulent active trading, gambling and speculation in their BO accounts. In this, ordinary investors were cheated and lost a huge amount of money. In this way, a total of 256 crore 97 lakh 70 thousand 304 taka was embezzled, which is defined as ‘criminally acquired money’.
Among them, the main accused Abul Khair (Hiru) with the help of his wife Kazi Sadia Hasan, transferred Tk 299.442 billion to various sectors, hiding the source. In addition, information was found on unusual and suspicious transactions totaling Tk 542.3151 billion in 17 bank accounts in his name.
The case states that Shakib Al Hasan invested in shares of Paramount Insurance Ltd., Crystal Insurance Ltd. and Sonali Papers Ltd., which were manipulated in the stock market by accused Md. Abul Khair (Hiru). In this, Shakib directly assisted in market manipulation and embezzled 2 crore 95 lakh 2 thousand 915 taka from the stock market in the name of realized capital gain from ordinary investors.