The Yunus Gang has been looting money and businesses since capturing power through widespread anarchy. โThey have looted Tk90,000 crore from the share market. They now own hundreds of crores of taka. They are making money abroad with cryptocurrency,โ Awami League President Sheikh Hasina said in her latest message published by the party online.
Since taking the oath of chief adviser on August 8, Yunus has secured acquittal from all corruption cases and also gained huge benefits for himself and his companies through nepotism, irregularities, and corruption, using his position without any obstruction.
He has reduced the governmentโs 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.
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.
Latest, the government has issued a Payment Service Provider (PSP) license for Grameen Telecom’s associate company, Samadhan Services Limited.
Yunus has also shown nepotism in choosing members of the Advisory Council and important positions in the interim government.
Sheikh Hasina said that Western puppet Yunus is patronising the Jamaat-e-Islami and militants to cling to power and plunder money.
The Yunus government has released several hundred militants, including those responsible for brutal murders at the Holey Artisan Bakery. Convicted war criminal and Jamaat leader ATM Azharul Islam has been acquitted and released. All the convicts in the August 21 grenade attack case have been released.
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.
Sheikh Hasina said she gave Yunus Tk400 crore for the Grameen Bank and gave a license for Grameen Phone after taking office in 1996. But he acted against her during the army-backed caretaker government in 2007-08. He suggested that Sheikh Hasina be kept in jail and left out of politics.
After Sheikh Hasina returned to power, investigations were launched against Yunus’ corruption and irregularities, especially for tax evasion and embezzlement of funds meant for the poor.
He was also holding the post of the managing director of Grameen Bank, defying the rules he once set for the bank. After the Bangladesh Bank removed him from the post, Yunus challenged the order in court, but lost the legal battle.
During the same time, Yunus engaged with the Clinton family and requested that then-Secretary Hillary Clinton help him survive the legal complications.
In the following years, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed several corruption cases against Yunus. Meanwhile, Yunus’ aides continued to threaten Sheikh Hasina and her son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, with consequences if the investigations against Yunus were not stopped.
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. She heard that Yunus 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.
She said that Yunus is using the courts and the ACC to bring false corruption allegations against her. He is doing these to hide his own misdeeds.
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 outโฆJoy, Putul, Bobby, Tulip, Rehanaโฆ Is 10 kathas of land a crime? Why did we commit a crime? Donโt we have the right to get 10 kathas of land? We have given all our resources to the people. Donโt 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. It has a branch in Cox’s Bazar. โHe also bought 5 acres of land in Uttara.
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.
โจCorruption at the core
Meanwhile, the Awami League media wing and its activists have launched a campaign to highlight the corruption by Yunus and his gang.
A post on Wednesday said that while the Yunus regime claims to wage war on โcorruptionโ and โrestore orderโ, his inner circle is neck-deep in embezzlement, power abuse, and influence-peddling.
It said Tk150 crore has been looted through shady deals in Nagad, Bangladeshโs mobile financial service, where the key suspect is Atiq Morshed, personal officer of a top adviser, and his wife. They rigged tenders, abused power, extorted people and earned illegal wealth. “This isnโt just scandal; itโs systemic looting.”
Other top adviser aidesโMoazzem Hossain and Tuhin Farabiโare also under ACC investigation. One has already been banned from travelling abroad, and his NID is blocked.
The Awami League condemned Yunus’ silence and lack of accountability, no resignations, and the blame game on Facebook.
Transparency International, Bangladesh (TIB) has clearly stated that the advisers cannot hide behind their staff. They must resign when their inner circle is caught stealing from the people.
The party deplored the absence of outrage in the civil society, arrests, and media trials. “The truth is clear: The so-called ‘clean regime’ is nothing more than a corrupt cartel in disguise.
“Backed by Islamists. Fueled by lies. Drowning in scandals.”
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