The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has filed a case against 31 chairmen, managing directors and director of 13 overseas recruiting agencies on allegations of embezzling Tk1,159 crore.
ACC’s Director General Akther Hossain disclosed the information to journalists at a briefing at its office on Sunday.
The accused includes Akash Vromon’s Mansur Ahmed Kalam, Winner Overseas Limited’s Rahima Haque and Mahfuzul Haque, Shaheen Travels’ M Shahdat Hossain Taslim, Navira Limited’s Sheikh Mohammad Shahidur Rahman, Mahbubur Rahman and Shamim Hasan, Adib Air Travels and Tours’ KM Mobarok Ullah, Abul Kalam Azad, Nawshad Ara Akter, Hasna Akter Azad, United Manpower Consultant Limited’s Nazma Akter, ZU Sayeed, Zuhana Subaita, Zisan Sayeed, Greenland Overseas’ Rehana Arjuman Hai, PR Overseas Limited’s Imam Akter Punam and Golam Rakib, Zaharat Associate Limited’s Muhammad Shafiqul Alam Firoz, Nahida Akter, Rawshan Ara Parvin and AKM Mosharraf Hossain, Apurba Recruiting Agency’s Mohiuddin Ahmed, Mrs Jannat Overseas’ Lima Begum, Midway Overseas Limited’s Mohammad Rafiqul Haldar Bhuyan and Kazi Aditi Rubayat and South Point Overseas Limited’s Manzur Kader, Sadia Manzur, Ahmed Ataur Rahman, Ahmed Khaled Lubnani and Ahmed Faisal Ramadani.
ACC officials said that the accused, holding various positions in trade body Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA), through a syndicate, violated the conditions and used the influence of the ruling party to send workers abroad by charging five times more than the government-fixed Tk78,990.
ACC said they were appointed as agents for worker recruitment under the agreement between the Bangladesh and Malaysian governments, but they profited through irregularities and corruption by bypassing the prescribed selection process and other conditions for sending workers to Malaysia in contradiction to the specified job proposals.
The ACC, in March, had sued 33 individuals from 12 recruiting agencies of embezzling Tk1,128 crore.
