ACC prosecutes former BSEC chairman Shibli Rubaiyat over Tk 37mn bribes

Five other people have also been accused in the lawsuit

The Anti-Corruption Commission, or ACC, has initiated a lawsuit against Shibli Rubaiyat Ul Islam, the former chairman of the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission or BSEC, on charges of receiving over Tk 37.6 million in bribes.

Five other people have also been accused in the case filed on Wednesday, ACC Director General Md Akhtar Hossain said.

The other accused are Javeed A Matin, chairman of Monarch Holdings Inc; Ariful Islam, owner of Xin Bangla Fabrics; Israt Jahan, FAVP of Mutual Trust Bank; Mir Iqbal Hossain, vice president and branch operations manager of the same bank; and Syed Mahbub Morshed, SEVP of the Audit and Inspection Department and former branch manager of the bank.

Police arrested Shibli Rubaiyat in Dhaka’s Dhanmondi on Tuesday night.

According to the case statement, he received a bribe of Tk 19.2 million, or about $226,308, by showcasing a fake house rent agreement.

In addition, he was charged for allegedly taking Tk 18.4 million in bribes, misusing the goods export strategy through fake sale contracts.

He served as the BSEC chairman from May 17, 2020 to August 2024. At that time, the money from Monarch Holdings Inc, a company based in the United States, was wired into his bank account, the statement read.

In July 2020, around Tk 19.2 million was deposited through four transactions from the company’s bank account to Shibli’s account in Southeast Bank.

Shibli Rubaiyat withdrew the money on Jul 13, 2020.

In the declaration form of the remittance received by the bank, he declared the fund as family expenditure. In order to justify the bribe received, Shibli made a fake house rent agreement with another accused Javeed.

Later, he issued a licence for a brokerage house Monarch Holdings Limited named after the gang tied to Javeed in December 2021.

The case dossier says suspect Md Ariful Islam received a trade licence in the name of Xin Bangla Fabrics using a house address in Savar that was owned by Shibli.

Shibli also runs the Mutual Trust Bank account in the name of Xin Bangla Fabrics, the ACC said.

The company entered into an agreement with Monarch Holdings Inc in July 2020, outlining the export of goods valued at $145,000 in the September shipment, and $216,000 in the shipment on Sept 30, 2020.

However, a review of the company’s bank account at the Mutual Trust Bank PLC’s Dilkusha branch shows a total of $361,000, or about Tk 30 million, was deposited, including $216,000 on Jul 17 and $145,000 on Jul 20, 2020.

At that time, Xin Bangla Fabrics did not have the approval of the Export Promotion Bureau, export and import registration certificates, BGMEA membership and environmental clearance certificates, and bonded warehouse, except the updated trade licence of 2020.

According to the ACC, no information about the production of the goods in Xin Bangla was found during spot inspection or the review of documents at that time. So the contract for the sale of goods in 2020 was a product named after the shell company called Xin Bangla Fabrics, the anti-graft watchdog alleged.

The case dossier also shows Shibli paid Tk 8.9 million against a loan created by himself using the money he received in the bank account of the shell company [Xin Bangla Fabrics] under his control.

From that deposit, he withdrew about Tk 9.5 million in cash through one of his appointed aides named “Delwar” at different times.

That means out of the Tk 36 million deposited in the account, he took a bribe of Tk 18.4 million in the form of loan repayment and cash.

Through various individuals and institutions, he made sure to deposit the rest of the money in the Merchant Bank account of Javeed, who sent illegal money through money laundering from the US, and to entities associated with him.

Shibli Rubaiyat, a professor of the Department of Banking and Insurance at Dhaka University, was made the head of the BSEC for a four-year term in 2020.

Prior to the appointment, he was also chairman of the Sadharan Bima Corporation.

The interim government recently revoked his passport.

Earlier on Oct 9, the court banned him from leaving the country upon an ACC plea.