RDP Finance disappears, thousands duped

Hundreds of depositors have filed two criminal cases in Patuakhali Sadar police station, alleging they have been duped of nearly TK 200 million by RDP Finance & Investments MCS Limited.

This company has been approved by the Ministry of Cooperatives. Its executives seemed to have disappeared, the depositors allege.

But it is not yet clear how many depositors have been duped – and to what extent.

The head office of the company and 71 of its branch offices are abandoned, locked out by its executives for more than a month.  

The Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) have put on hold all bank accounts of RDP Finance & Investments.

"We are investigating the RDP Finance & Investment Company. They seem to have raised TK 200 million from many investors and vanished," said SM Ziaul Haque, Patuakhali Sadar Police Station OC.

He said two cases have been filed against the company - one under a Special Act and another under the Penal Code.

"We have informed Bangladesh Bank about the cases."

Patuakhali's additional superintendent of police HM Azimul Huq said the RDP Finance & Investment was functioning as a micro-credit agency. "But its operations were not legal."

The Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) on June 18 asked all scheduled banks, where RDP had accounts, to freeze transactions for at least 30 days until further notice.

Information about accounts connected to RDP's promoters and executives have also been sought by BFIU.

BFIU's deputy chief Md.Mahfuzur Rahman, also an executive director with Bangladesh Bank, said instructions to freeze transactions on RDP bank accounts and seek information about their promoters have been issued under Sec 23 (1-C) of Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2012.

"Police has complained that RDP Finance has raised a lot of deposits and are now paying back the depositors. We are not able to trace the company's promoters. So we had to resort to a freeze on its bank accounts," Rahman told bdnews24.com

According to the company's website, RDP started functioning after opening a branch office at Narayanganj.

Abdur Razzak was its chairman and the company had five other directors. National Mosque Baitul Mukharram's Khatib Muhammed Salahuddin is mentioned as the chairperson of the RDP's Sharia Council.

Its website has messages from President Abdul Hamid, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and several other ministers like Industry Ministry Amir Hossain Amu, Food Minister Qamrul islam, Transport Minister Obaidul Quader ,Law Minister Anisul Haque. Jatiya Party chairman H M Ershad's message is also posted on the company's website.

The company's head office on the 9th Floor of the Sultan Ahmed Plaza at 32, Purana Paltan, was found locked on Wednesday.

Qazi Mustafizur Rahman, an executive of the DG Communications, on the tenth floor of Sultan Ahmed Plaza told bdnews24.com that the RDP office has been locked up for the last one month.

"For the last 2-3 months, we could hear much commotion in that office. People would loudly complain they were not getting back their money. Then we found the office locked up, " Mustafizur Rahman said.

According to the website, RDP was raising money by offering 8 types of deposits. They promised huge interests, offering double the return on investments for 5 year deposits and three times the return on 7 year deposits.

They were also offering loans between Tk 2 million to Tk 3 million.

Depositors have been duped in an identical fashion by another youth employment group called " Jubak" that started operations in 2007.

The property of 'Jubak" promoters were croaked but many of its depositors are yet to receive refunds on their deposits so far.