Reversal News Desk,
A major fraud has been reported in ‘Nagad Limited’, the mobile financial services establishment of the Bangladesh Postal Department. The institution has committed financial fraud and created additional e-money by showing fake distributors and agents. Due to these reasons, accounts of Tk 2,356 crore are not matching. Information about these irregularities came to light during the inspection of the administrators and management committee that Bangladesh Bank has set up to manage Nagad after the interim government took charge.
In this incident, the administrator appointed by the central bank in the company has already dismissed 41 distributors and 24,097 agents of Nagad Limited. In addition, 643 sales officers have also been dismissed. In addition, the administrator of Nagad has recommended to the Department of Posts to take action against six top-level officials.
It is learned that a list of six officials has been finalized for creating unauthorized distributors and sent to the Department of Posts to take legal action against them. In addition, the administrator appointed by Nagad, Muhammad Badiuzzaman Didar, has written to the Department of Posts to take legal action against those involved in managing Nagad. Five top-level officials of Nagad had already been dismissed.
Sources concerned say that the irregularities in Nagad are the country’s biggest ‘digital fraud’ in terms of money. Therefore, it has been decided that a forensic audit will be conducted on Nagad. The service is operated on behalf of the Department of Posts by Nagad Limited, which was once Third Wave Technology Limited.
After the fall of the Awami League government, the administrator appointed started finding financial irregularities in addition to managing Nagad. This is where the issue of large-scale digital fraud came to the fore. The documents state that according to the agreement signed between the Postal Department and Third Wave Technology in 2017, e-money can be issued in the same amount as the money deposited in the bank. However, the administrator team found that an additional Tk 645 crore of e-money had been issued in Nagad.
The administrator team also informed the Postal Department that Tk 1,711 crore had been withdrawn by opening 41 distributor accounts in Nagad without authorization. The responsibility of these distributor accounts was to distribute government allowances.
It is learned that since Awami League leaders were involved in the ownership of Nagad, the then government had chosen Nagad to distribute allowances. And using this opportunity, fraud was committed with a part of the government allowance. Especially, Nagad took the money of those beneficiaries who did not withdraw it within three days after paying the money to the account. Documents show that the Comilla distributor distributed money to Rangpur beneficiaries. As a result, fraud has occurred in this case as well, said a Nagad official.
Nagad’s administrative team believes that the fraud was committed by using distributors who were appointed without approval. A list of six officials suspected of involvement in this has been finalized and sent to the Department of Posts. The list includes Nagad’s Executive Director Safayet Alam, Additional Managing Director Mohammad Aminul Haque, Deputy Managing Director Golam Mortuza Chowdhury, Chief Technology Officer Abu Raihan, Head of Financial Administration and Management Department Rakibul Islam and First Vice President of Solution Design Department Nazmus Shakib Aqib.
The then Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Tanvir Ahmed; Executive Directors Niaz Morshed alias Elite and Maruful Islam alias Jhalak; Deputy Chief Marketing Officer Khandaker Mohammad Solaiman (Solaiman Sukhan) and Human Resources Officer Anik Barua have not been to the office since August 5. The central bank appointed administrators to Nagad on August 21. These officials were dismissed after they took charge. Many of the dismissed individuals are also owners of Nagad Limited.
Meanwhile, a press release sent to the media by Nagad said that the appointed administrator and his team are working to build Nagad, the mobile financial service of the Bangladesh Postal Department. Nagad is being run under the direct supervision of the newly formed management board and the administrative team. At the same time, an investigation is being conducted into all aspects of Nagad, which will help in purifying and building the institution.
The press release said that various news reports have recently been published about some of Nagad’s financial activities in the past. In this regard, the Nagad authorities believe that it is important to establish transparency regarding the transactions of financial institutions. And that is what the current administrator and his team are trying to do. What happened in the past will come out through proper investigation. And based on that, a purified Nagad will be built. Nagad is now under the direct supervision of Bangladesh Bank. As an institution of the Bangladesh Postal Department, every penny of the customer is safe here. Whatever happened before, Nagad is now moving forward with better services and greater assurance.
