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Published : 18 May 2026, 06:00 PM
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has seized official documents from the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) on an ongoing investigation into an alleged Tk 2.57 billion stock market manipulation involving cricketer Shakib Al Hasan and 14 others.
ACC Deputy Director and Public Relations Officer Md Aktarul Islam confirmed the development on Monday.
The corruption watchdog had initially requested the documents’ certified copies in May last year.
The case was later filed on Jun 17 last year by ACC Assistant Director Sazzad Hossain, who is also investigating the allegations.
According to the case statement, the suspects launched a criminal conspiracy to bypass trading laws for rapid financial gain.
They allegedly engaged in deceptive active trading, series transactions, and market speculation across specific beneficiary owner (BO) accounts to artificially inflate the stock prices of companies like Paramount Insurance, Crystal Insurance, and Sonali Paper.
This coordinated manipulation lured general investors into buying overpriced shares, resulting in an estimated loss of Tk 2.57 billion, which the suspects then withdrew as "realised capital gains", the ACC said.
The primary suspect in the case is Md Abul Khair, a deputy registrar at the Department of Cooperatives widely known as Abul Khair Hero.
The ACC noted that Khair, with assistance from his wife Kazi Sadia Hasan, moved Tk 299.4 million of the illicit gains through different sectors in an attempt to layer and conceal its origin.
Investigators also flagged Tk 5.42 billion in suspicious and irrational transactions across 17 bank accounts linked to Hero.
The charges filed in the case fall under the Money Laundering Prevention Act, 2012, the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947, and several sections of the Penal Code covering criminal breach of trust, cheating, and forgery.
The ACC case alleges that Shakib, a former national cricket captain and former lawmaker from the Magura-1 constituency, colluded in the market manipulation by investing in Khair’s manipulated shares.
The commission states that Shakib's participation helped lure retail investors into the trap, allowing him to embezzle Tk 29.5 million under the guise of realised capital gains.
Shakib was in Canada when the Sheikh Hasina administration fell on Aug 5, 2024 and has not returned to Bangladesh since.
The cricketer once served as a brand ambassador for both the BSEC and the ACC.
He fronted the ACC’s anti-corruption campaigns and launched its “106” hotline in 2018, though the watchdog chose not to renew his contract in 2022 amid mounting controversies.
Prior to the ACC case, the BSEC had fined Shakib Tk 5 million in September last year for share manipulation.
His bank accounts were subsequently frozen by the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) in November, and a travel ban was imposed on him in June last year.
