Troubled Evaly will sell assets to continue operations, says court-appointed chairman

The beleaguered online shopping platform Evaly will sell former managing director Mohammad Rassel’s luxury car and other assets to continue operating in the market, according to its court-appointed chairman.

Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury, who was appointed head of Evaly’s board of directors in October last year by the High Court, said they were happy with the court order ending a ban on sale or transfer of the company’s assets.

“This is showing some light for the future. We will try to refund the customers whose products were not delivered, and the sellers who were not paid. It will take time.”

Rassel and his wife Shamima Nasrin were arrested on charges of fraud on Sept 16 last year. On Sept 22, the High Court imposed a ban on sale and transfer of Evaly’s assets after it was moved for liquidation of the assets.

The court on Oct 18 appointed a four-strong board, headed by Justice Shamsuddin, to the firm. The three other members are former secretary Md Rezaul Ahsan, accountant Fakhruddin Ahmed and Supreme Court lawyer Shameem Aziz. Mahbub Kabir Milon, a former additional secretary, was appointed its managing director.

The company, however, had no funds to continue operations. Sunday’s order ending the ban on sale or transfer of the assets cleared the path for the company to get Tk 23.5 million funds, Justice Shamsuddin said.

“It’s very insignificant compared to the money Evaly owes its customers and sellers. But it will be enough to pay 15 security guards and 15 officials who have been working for three months,” said the former Appellate Division judge.

The officials include four accounting experts at Evaly’s headquarters who will be required for audit, and the guards were appointed to secure the company’s three warehouses in Savar.

“Another big spending will go to a mandatory audit,” Justice Shamsuddin said.

Evaly’s liabilities stood at Tk 5.43 billion in July last year, according to the commerce ministry. It is not clear how much assets the company has.

The new board has found that Rassel and Shamima’s personal properties and Evaly’s assets were mixed up. So the board is trying to get the accounts of their wealth.

Justice Shamsuddin said the High Court granted their plea and ordered the Bangladesh Bank and other banks to provide them with details of the couple’s accounts.

Rassel had claimed in a report to the ministry that Evaly’s server and website’s brand value was Tk 10 billion. The website hosted on Amazon Web Services server is closed now. “Evaly owes Amazon a huge amount of money. We'll get a lot more information if we can reopen the server,” said the former judge.

The Evaly chairman said Rassel and his wife had bought a number of luxury cars for themselves and their relatives.

The court has permitted the board to sell the 24 cars, but the board has 14 now. “We’ve started criminal cases and sought police help to get the cars back.”

Five of the 14 cars are "very expensive", including a Road Ranger used by Rassel, said Justice Shamsuddin. The expensive cars will be sold and the others will be rented, he said.

The laptop, desktop computers and other properties of the company will also be sold. “We’ve sent letters to the employees who took laptops to their home. They will face criminal charges if they do not return the computers.”

Some employees had also taken advance from the company and the board asked them to return the money, he said.