Moudud was on Niko payroll, his wife bought $400,000 house in US: FBI agent

Moudud Ahmed was on the payroll of Niko Resources while he made decisions as a minister in Khaleda Zia’s cabinet in favour of the Canadian firm to win a contract, an FBI agent has said.

His wife bought a $400,000 house in the United States, though his annual government salary was around $9,500 between 2001 and 2006, said the FBI agent who had travelled to Bangladesh to investigate the graft charges against Niko which is accused of bribing Bangladeshi officials.

Debra LaPrevotte Griffith, an FBI expert in international money laundering, said in a deposition to Bangladesh authorities that she came to Bangladesh with prosecutor Linda M Samuel in 2008 to investigate the allegations at the request of their Bangladeshi counterparts.     

“Moudud Ahmed was still literally on the payroll of Niko while he was making decision in their favor in his role as a public official,” she said.    

Griffith said her financial analysis had revealed that Niko transferred $8,315 to Moudud’s account on Jan 15, 2002.

 

In exchange for the money and despite having no competency in technical issues, the law firm of Moudud had written to the government in favour of Niko, stating that a gas field was a marginally producing one, according to her.

The firm’s view was in contrary to the opinions of geologists at the state’s oil corporation BAPEX, who claimed the East Chhatak fields were still unexplored and thus could not be deemed marginal, Griffith added.

“I obtained records which revealed that during this time frame, Moudud’s wife, Hasna, purchased a $400,000 home in the US. Moudud Ahmed’s government salary during this time frame was approximately $9,500 per year,” the FBI agent said, giving a broad hint that the rest of the money used in buying the house came from Niko as bribe.            

Moudud, a senior leader of the BNP, is co-accused with the party chief and the then prime minister Khaleda Zia, in a case started by the Anti-Corruption Commission of Bangladesh in 2007.

BNP chief Khaleda Zia is shifted back to the Old Dhaka jailhouse on Thursday from Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University after a month of treatment. Photo: Abdullah Al Momin

 

They stand accused of causing the exchequer a loss of an estimated Tk 137.77 billion by abusing power to award a gas exploration and extraction deal to Niko during the 2001-06 coalition rule with the Jamaat-e-Islami.

The others accused in the case are former state minister AKM Mosharraf Hossain, former principal secretary Kamal Uddin Siddiqui, former secretary Khandaker Shahidul Islam, former senior assistant secretary CM Yusuf Hossain, former general manager of BAPEX Mir Moinul Haque, former BAPEX secretary Md Shafiur Rahman, businessman Giasuddin Al Mamun, former president of Dhaka Club Selim Bhuiyan, and Niko vice-president for South Asia Qasim Sharif.

“TARIQUE TOO”

 

FBI expert Griffith noted in her deposition she was aware by June 2011 that Niko pleaded guilty in Canada to paying bribes for gas field explorations in Bangladesh, including a $190,000 Canadian dollar Toyota Land Cruiser and a $5,000 trip to Canada, to the then state minister for energy Mosharraf.

“The Toyota alone was the financial equivalent of more than 20 years worth of annual salary for the State Minister of Energy,” she said.

Less than two weeks after Mosharraf received the car, he checked into a Calgary hotel to attend an oil and gas exposition.

He was accompanied by Selim, who was hired by Qasim to facilitate bribes to Mosharraf, Khaleda and her son Tarique Rahman, the FBI agent said.

Tarique, now running the party from exile in London, was not prosecuted by the national antigraft agency.

He has been sentenced to 17 years in prison in two cases of corruption and money laundering, and to life in Aug 21, 2004 grenade attack case. He left Bangladesh in 2008.

Khaleda is serving 17 years in jail in two different corruption cases. 

“My investigation revealed that money from accounts controlled by Qasim Sharif was transferred to Selim Bhuiyan, Babul Gazi, and Jamal Shamsi.

“There is evidence that these payments represent bribe payments paid to intermediaries for the ultimate benefit of Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, and others,” Debra Griffith added.   

The ACC had started a case against Sheikh Hasina, now prime minister, and some others in another case over the Niko deal on the same day it prosecuted Khaleda.

The High Court dismissed the case against Hasina in 2010 after the Awami League returned to power. The court had observed that the case was started to harass Hasina.

Hasina’s son and ICT Affairs Adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy has published the full witness statement of Griffith and Royal Canadian Mounted Police documents on the Niko deal in a Facebook post.

 

“Both detail the evidence of corruption against Khaleda Zia and Tarique Rahman. They have been filed in our courts already and are now public record,” he said.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told a news conference in November that he had attached investigation reports by the US and Canadian agencies to a petition submitted to the Ninth Special Judge’s Court of Dhaka, which is hearing the Niko graft case against Khaleda.

It was set to hear the petition to get two officers of the RCMP and one of the FBI to testify against Khaleda later in December.

The attorney general also said the state had written to the FBI agent and the two Canadian police officers asking them to come to Dhaka to provide statements on their reports.