The controversial trio of Arafat, Sarafat and Shaukat amassed crores of taka from different sectors during the ousted Awami League regime through massive corruption, irregularities and use of political power, official sources said.
The sources at the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) said the commission gathered evidences of corruption and irregularities against the trio and is carrying out investigations based on documents available from their business enterprises.
Mohammad Ali Arafat was the state minister for information and broadcasting of the AL government, Chowdhury Nafiz Sarafat was the Chairman Padma Bank Ltd. and was close to AL high-ups, while Shaukat Ali Chowdhury is a businessman based in Chattogram.
Shaukat opened a company with these two and stayed out of touch under the protection of power of the two stalwarts. Several documentary evidences of the company opened under the joint names have showed sensational information about corruption.
The investigation revealed that Shaukat gave many benefits to Arafat and Sarafat on account of being the chairman of the private sector Eastern Bank. Huge amount of loans were given on personal guarantee without collateral. In return, Shawkat applied influence in various regulatory agencies.
In particular, he expanded his business in the capital market, ship breaking industry, banks and tea plantations at an unusual speed. He has also taken the approval of the power plant. Mismanagement in the ship-breaking industry led to a series of accidents that have resulted in the loss of life, but remained elusive.
In this case, Shawkat used Arafat and Sarafat as his ‘protector’. While investigating allegations of corruption and illegal wealth of Arafat and Sarafat, ACC officials found information about the collusion of these three.
An ACC official said they have information that Arafat and Sarafat grabbed the shares of the joint company without capital investment in exchange for Shawkat getting various government benefits. After using Sajib Wajed Jai’s name got a huge amount of money in that company from the ICT sector. After the establishment of the company, they got priority in any government project work.
Incidentally, Shaukat’s father late Mohammad Ali Chowdhury was the president of Awami League in Chittagong city after independence.
It was known that Arafat and his close aide Sarafat went into hiding soon after the fall of the Awami League government in the mass uprising of the students on August 5. The ACC launched an investigation into their abuse of power, corruption and money laundering.
In the initial investigation, the ACC officials found information about corruption and money laundering by the company established with Shawkat. However, Sarafat fled the country with his family on September 23 while the corruption investigation was going on. Pictures of his departure on Emirates Airlines flight EK-373 are available.
Sarafat, who once worked as a bank officer, took over Padma Bank with the help of the police and an intelligence agency, and the bank’s chairman went to forest.
He is accused of looting about thousands of crores of Taka from the stock market. He is associated with the ownership of wealth management company RAIS. Besides, he has various business establishments including mobile tower company, power plant, star hotel business, private university and media.
While the news of Sarafat’s escape has been confirmed, Arafat’s whereabouts have not been confirmed. But there are rumours, he also fled the country secretly. It was not possible to know their statement as they were absconding.
Shaukat’s mobile phone was called several times on Sunday to get a statement on these issues, but he did not receive it.
According to the sources, Arafat, Sarafat and Shaukat are the shareholders of the company named CDNET Communications Limited. After the fall of the government, angry students attacked the CDNET office.
CDNet was established on April 4, 2022. In the beginning, Sarafat owned 80 percent of the company’s shares. He held these shares through his ownership of Strategic Finance Limited and AB Hitech Consortium. And through Web Intelligence Limited, Arafat held 20 percent of the shares. Shares were redistributed among themselves in March this year. On March 24, Nafiz Sarafat transferred 30 percent of his shares to Shaukat. According to the information available from the Registered Joint Stock Company, the authorized capital of CDNet Communications Limited is Tk 10 crores. The paid up capital is 1 crore taka. The face value of each share is fixed at 10 taka. The company operates in the technology sector. It is alleged that they listed this company in the capital market and obtained unethical benefits through share manipulation.
The shares of CDnet had undergone a wide movement in this short period of time. As per the updated information, the total number of shares of CDNet is 10 lakh. Out of this, the share of Web Intelligence is two lakh.
The company features the wife of Arafat as a director. Four lakh shares of the company are held by Strategic Finance Limited.
On the other hand, Zara Offdock Limited holds three lakh shares of CDNet. The representatives of the company are Shaukat and Jaran Ali Chowdhury. Besides, Rahib Safwan and Sarafat HAD one lakh shares of CDnet.
Shaukat joined the circle of former Arafat and Sarafat to make the business smooth. As he took advantage of it, he also gave advantage to those two.
In 2022, Shaukat also got approval for the power plant named Namreen Power Limited due to the lobbying of Arafat and Sarafat. The power plant is owned by Shaukat, his wife Tasmia Amberin and daughter Zara Namreen.
In 2022, Shaukat also got approval for the power plant named Namreen Power Limited due to the lobbying of Arafat and Sarafat. The power plant is owned by Shaukat, his wife Tasmia and daughter Zara.
It was known that Shaukat used the rulers of AL government through Arafat and Sarafat to loot his business benefits. With this strategy, he has taken huge business advantage in the past. He and his family have become owners of huge amount of money despite the share market scam. In 2010, millions of small investors lost their money in the share market scam. Shaukat’s name also came in the investigations.
Shaukat’s wife Tasmia and daughter Zara were named in the report of the inquiry committee headed by Khandkar Ibrahim Khaled to investigate the incident of stock market collapse. In their report, the inquiry committee found unusual transactions in the Beneficiary Owners (BO) accounts of the duo.
From January 1, 2010 to December 31 of the same year, shares worth Tk 1,368 crore were traded in Tasmia Amberin’s BO account. But Shaukat got concession due to the lobbying of influential quarters of the government. From then on, his relationship with the rulers developed.
It was also known that Shaukat has been carrying on the ship breaking industry business for years without paying heed to the regulations. 15 people died in 13 accidents in 15 years in SN Corporation, owned by him. Despite so many accidents, no action was taken against the company.
However, he raised the standard of SN Corporation’s environmental clearance to green using political influence. On September 7, 6 people were burned to death in an explosion while cutting a ship at the shipbreaking yard located in Sitakunda. The company’s environmental clearance has been suspended due to the explosion.
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA) sent a legal notice to stop the activities of the institution. The notice said despite repeated accidents and casualties at the SN Corporation shipbreaking yard, the owners took virtually no steps to ensure safety of the workers.
In the notice of demand for justice signed by S Hasanul Banna, a lawyer of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, it was demanded that all the activities of SN Corporation’s ship breaking yard should be stopped and action should be taken subject to investigation whether it is being conducted according to the court order and existing laws.
Bangladesh Supreme Court lawyer S. Hasanul Banna said no action was taken despite repeated accidents in the institution.
