Flight Expert ‘scam’: 3 executives arrested, no sign of owner

Employees at the online airline ticket booking platform say its managing director may have fled abroad

Police have arrested three executives of Flight Expert, the online airline ticket booking platform, after a case was filed alleging the owners “stole a customer’s money and fled”.

The whereabouts of the company’s Managing Director Salman Bin Rashid are currently unknown. But Flight Expert employees have told the police he “may have fled abroad”.

The Flight Expert website was suddenly shut down on Saturday and rumours began to swirl than Salman had fled abroad.

As word spread, the company’s customers, ticket vendors, agency owners, and those who had paid for advance tickets crowded the Flight Expert offices throughout the Saturday.

Bipul Sarkar, owner of Sarkar Tours and Travels, filed a case that night at Motijheel Police Station over the incident, alleging Tk 40 million had been embezzled.

Police then arrested three Flight Expert employees on Saturday night. They are the company’s Head of Finance Sakib Hossain, 32, its Chief Commercial Officer Sayeed Ahmed, 40, and its Chief Operating Officer AKM Shahadat Hossain, 32.

In addition to the three arrestees, Salman and his father MA Rashid are also accused in the case, according to Mezbah Uddin, chief of Motijheel Police Station.

Sayeed filed a general diary after his arrest on Saturday night. The two other arrestees had gone with him to file the GD at Motijheel Police Station. Police arrested all three there.

In his GD, Sayeed said that Salman had “fled” the country with his family without informing anyone and informed employees of the company’s closure in a WhatsApp group message.

Flight Expert is a concern under the Makkah Group. Its MD Salman and his father Rashid are veteran businessmen in the country’s travel agency sector. Their agency had offered tickets as well as different packages for Hajj and Umrah trips for a long time.

Flight Expert launched operations in Bangladesh in March 2017, offering services including domestic and international flight bookings, hotel reservations, tour packages, and visa processing.

It gained popularity for offering low-cost ticket options.