The Customs Intelligence yesterday filed a money laundering case against a garment factory, SN Design Ltd, on allegations of siphoning off about Tk 100 crore from Bangladesh. SN Design shipped 297 apparel consignments abroad between 2010 and 2015 but did not bring back any proceeds from the exports, according to the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate, an office under the National Board of Revenue. We have concluded that an offence has been committed and the money has been transferred to other accounts,” said Moinul Khan, director general of Customs Intelligence. This is the first time that the NBR has filed a money laundering case after the government revised the law to empower the revenue authority to investigate allegations of money laundering. The Customs Intelligence Directorate said it started investigating the case in December 2015 by detaining seven containers at the Chittagong Port prior to shipmentIt was found that there was an attempt to ship the containers through forged bank documents and letters of credit, the Customs Intelligence said in a statement. It was discovered that the firm shipped the containers on forged bank documents in the last five years. The firm also claimed itself to be a client of Sonali Bank, Brac Bank and National Bank.In reality, SN Design Ltd was not a client of any of these banks, according to the Customs Intelligence. “Foreign currencies were supposed to come to the country as per the conditions of export,” said the Customs Intelligence.Apparels were shipped to countries such as the Philippines and the United Arab Emirates and the payment remained abroad, it added. Biplob Kumar Sarker, assistant revenue officer of customs, yesterday filed a case with Motijheel Police Station, citing the firm’s proprietor Md Shahidul Islam as the main accused. The Customs Intelligence said SN Design’s existence could not be traced to its registered address of 38 Senpara, Parbata, Mirpur in Dhaka. “We will now go for a detailed investigation prior to pressing the final charges,” said Khan. The Daily Star tried to contact Shahidul Islam, managing director of SN Design, by phone but he rejected multiple calls. Islam did not respond to a text message for comment either.
