SEC rejects graft charges against chief Khairul

The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission or BSEC has denied the allegations its chief M Khairul Hossain embezzled and looted money.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 22 August 2019, 06:03 PM
Updated : 22 August 2019, 06:03 PM

It labeled the reports on the BSEC chairman’s ‘corruption’ published in the media ‘false’ and ‘fabricated’.

“The plot has been hatched against Khairul Hossain just to tarnish the image of the organisation,” said the securities regulator in a statement on Thursday.

The Anti-Corruption Commission or ACC on Aug 7 assigned its Assistant Director Mamunur Rashid to look into the graft allegations against the BSEC chairman, media reported.

Khairul could not be reached for comment as he did not take phone calls from bdnews24.com before the issuance of the statement. BSEC spokesperson Saifur Rahman said he is 'unaware' of the allegations and declined to comment on the issue.

File Photo

The statement said, “M Khairul Hossain is a highly respected person. The allegations brought against him are false and fabricated."

The BSEC chairman embezzled and looted money through the process of low quality initial public offering or IPO approval, according to the media report.

"The chairman alone does not approve any IPO. It gets nod in the commission meeting,” said the statement.

"The company publishes its expenditure plan of the money raised through the IPO process in the prospectus and subsequently files a report on the use of the fund to the commission. Therefore, there is no basis for allegations of looting the fund of IPO,” it added.

Khairul who has been helming BSEC for eight years was appointed as chairman on May 15, 2011. His term was subsequently extended by four years in 2014 and by a further 2 years in 2018.

During his tenure, it has been alleged that a good number of IPOs with the window-dressing financial statements was approved and almost half of those were low quality.