Grameen Bank in a statement refuted Yunus Center’s arguments over complaints against Muhammad Yunus, saying the center’s response to the bank’s complaints in the rejoinder is full of misinterpretation of the law and contradictions.
Earlier, Grameen Bank authorities accused Muhammad Yunus and his associates of financial irregularities and corruption by submitting evidences and documents in the anti-corruption commission.
Following their complaint, the Yunus Center issued a rejoinder on May 30, protesting the allegations raised by Grameen Bank.
The GB’s statement said the Yunus Center protested Grameen Bank’s allegations without any specific legal arguments or evidence.
About the PLC loan, Grameen Bank said in the nineties, when Dr. Yunus was the managing director of Grameen Bank, a business company based in Chittagong, Packages Corporation Limited (PCL), was given a loan of about 9.5 crore Bangladeshi Taka, without complying with the rules and regulations of Grameen Bank. Note that Packages Corporation Limited is a business owned by Dr. Yunus and his family.
Yunus Centre’s explained that in the bilateral agreement signed between Grameen Bank and Packages Corporation, it is made very clear that the owners of Packages will not take any kind of financial benefits from Grameen Bank, such as ‘share of dividend’, rent of land, use of buildings and machinery Everything will be given for free.
After the signing of the agreement and the transfer of the plant and property of Packages to Grameen Bank, Packages Corporation was no longer under the control of the owners, and there were no further financial transactions with the owners. Any loan received by Packages does not in any way go to the owners of the company.
If it is a loan, it will be an internal financial transaction of the Grameen Bank network. The loan came to Packages Corporation after the Grameen Bank deal, from a social business fund known as SVCF (Social Business Venture Capital Fund), formed with the financial support of donors SVCF was created with donor-funding, to establish and promote social businesses.
About the misinterpretations and misleading information from Yunus Centre, Grameen Bank said according to Yunus Center, Packages Corporation did not receive any financial benefits.
However, according to clause 22 of the agreement they are citing, the net profit earned by PCL (Packages Corporation Limited) was shared equally between the two parties on a 50:50 basis (after deduction of income tax).
During the term of the contract, this profit was not received by PCL as ‘profit But this profit was credited to a fund held by PCL, and the fund was owned by PCL as well.
