The interim government led by Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus has granted a license to Samadhan Services Limited, a subsidiary of Grameen Telecom, which was founded by the Nobel laureate economist, as a Payment Service Provider (PSP).
As a result, Samadhan will start providing e-wallet or cashless digital wallet services in the country.
Since taking charge of the government, Yunus has secured huge benefits while his advisers, including the student representativesโMahfuj Alam, Asif Ahmedโand retired adviser Nahid Islam, and student leaders of the Kingโs party, have abused power to earn money illegally using their relatives and personal staff.
The ACC is scrutinising some of the allegations that were published in newspapers recently.
Awami League President Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday said that the Yunus Gang is looting money and businesses. They have looted Tk90,000 crore from the share market. They have now become the owners of hundreds of crores of taka. They are making money abroad with cryptocurrency.
The board of directors of Samadhan Services Limited has nine members, nominated by Grameen Telecom. The chairman of the company is the former managing director of Grameen Bank, M Shahjahan, and the managing director is the incumbent chairman of Grameen Telecom, Md Ashraful Hasan.
Currently, there are eight authorised PSPs, including iPay Systems, D Money Bangladesh, and Recursion Fintech.
Meanwhile, mobile operators Robi and Banglalink have expressed interest in launching their own digital wallets. The applications for licenses by online marketplaces Daraz and Chaldal are pending.
The Payment Systems Department of the Bangladesh Bank issued a circular on June 2.
The company applied for the PSP license for the first time on November 16, 2021. In December 2023, the application was sent to the then-Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder, but it was not approved.
After economist Dr Ahsan H Mansur took charge as the new governor last year, he issued the NOC on September 29.
Grameen Telecom case scrapped already
On April 24, a Supreme Court bench, led by Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed, dismissed the proceedings of a corruption case against Yunus and six other officials of Grameen Telecom.
The six officials are Managing Director Nazmul Islam and directors Ashraful Hassan, Naznin Sultana, Md Shahjahan, Nurjahan Begum, and SM Huzzatul Islam Latifee.
It was filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) for misappropriating approximately Tk 25.22 crore from the Grameen Telecom Workers’ Profit Participation Fund and engaging in money laundering.
The accused were indicted on June 12 last year. On July 24, the High Court summarily rejected a petition filed by Yunus and six others challenging the indictment order.
Huge personal gains
Apart from securing acquittal from all cases, since taking the oath on August 8, Yunus has also gained huge benefits for himself and his companies through nepotism, irregularities, and corruption, using his position without any obstruction. He has reduced the government’s share in Grameen Bank from 25% to 10% and awarded it tax exemption for five years.
His Grameen University has gotten the government nod at a surprisingly fast pace. Moreover, Grameen Employment Services Limited has a manpower export certificate.
Latest, the Ministry of Social Welfare is working to hand over its microfinance program worth Tk700 crore to Grameen Trust.
The Grameen Trust has been selected through the Single Source Selection (SSS) method. This means that organisations working on microfinance in Bangladesh, such as BRAC, ASHA, Bureau Bangladesh, etc., will be unable to compete to implement this social welfare program even if they want to.
Since taking oath on August 8, Yunus has recruited his close confidantes for the Advisory Council and other important positions of the interim government.
Yunusโ empire
Initially, Grameen Bank was a project under an institute of the Economics Department of Chittagong University. In 1983, the government established the bank by promulgating a military ordinance. Yunus used to work as its managing director at the Grameen Bank with a salary of Tk6,000.
He, however, earned a huge sum of money and property soon.
Cases and investigation reports suggest that he transferred Grameen Bank funds to other institutions and companies by different means, which are deemed illegal and unethical. Yunus admits that he did so, in many cases, to evade tax. The ACC filed several corruption cases against Yunus in the last few years.
In a recent address, Sheikh Hasina said that Yunus has investments worth $17 billion through his companies, including Grameen America, across the world. In France alone, he has a business of $2 billion and has shares with two or three banks there. He has bought a very expensive flat in Paris.
He has no shortage of wealth in Bangladesh. In the reports of three banks, he was the owner of Tk118 crore, she added.
Sheikh Hasina said: โWe took 10 kathas of land in Purbachal. Is that a big crime, that we are completely under the radar? None of our sons and daughters are left out…Joy, Putul, Bobby, Tulip, Rehana… Is 10 kathas of land a crime? Why did we commit a crime? Don’t we have the right to get 10 kathas of land? We have given all our resources to the people. Don’t our sons and daughters have any rights?โ
Describing the empire of Yunus, she said that he has 4,800 kathas of land in Purbachal, where he has built a resort named Naisarga.
โHe has bought 5 acres of land in Uttara. A branch of Naisarga Resort in Coxโs Bazar.
โSo, how did he take so much land in Purbachal? By what law? By what plan did he take it, and will he not have to answer? He will not be triedโฆ Will he not be held accountable?
Sheikh Hasina said that Yunus has bought land worth Tk6,000 crore all over Bangladesh. โWill it serve the people? Have people received even a single service to date? No one has seen the face of the Ananda School that was supposed to be built by Yunus in Chittagong (on 83 or 87 kathas of land),โ she said.
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