A court on Sunday ordered the freezing of 20 bank accounts belonging to the online travel agency Flight Expert following allegations of embezzling money collected for air ticket sales and bookings.
Judge Md Sabbir Faiz of the Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge’s Court passed the order after the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) filed an application.
The court’s bench assistant, Md Riaz Hossain, confirmed the development, noting that Sub-Inspector Md Zahir Raihan represented the CID in court.
The application stated that the firm, FEBD Limited (Flight Expert), accepted advance payments from various individuals and organisations for online ticket bookings. However, the agency allegedly failed to provide the tickets and instead embezzled the funds through fraudulent means.
According to the CID, Chairman Salman Bin Rashid Shah Sayeem of FEBD Limited, closed his office and fled to Canada on 2 August last year.
A review of the bank accounts revealed that numerous customers and sub-agencies had deposited varying sums of money over time. The CID stated that these actions constitute offences under the Money Laundering Prevention Act, 2012.
According to CID data, the 20 accounts currently hold a total balance of Tk4,10,00,947.
The investigative agency argued that the accounts needed to be frozen to facilitate a fair investigation and to prevent the remaining funds from being transferred or misappropriated.
