Bangladesh Thai Aluminium serves notice on probe chief
Dhaka, April 25:

A major suspect in Bangladesh’s recent stock market fraud has served a legal notice upon the committee investigating the debacle and filed an appeal with a court seeking to scrap parts of the probe report that accused the company of siphoning off 15 crore takas.

Bangladesh Thai Aluminium Ltd on Sunday filed a civil suit with a Dhaka court against the investigation committee’s chief, Mr Khandkar Ibrahim Khaled, and other members of the probe body, seeking a declaration to cancel the part of the report implicating the enterprise.

The company, owned by an influential ruling party lawmaker, also served a legal notice upon the probe committee chief Mr Khandkar Ibrahim Khaled and other members of the body demanding their apology and asking them to pay 100 crore takas in compensation for making “false” and “fabricated” statements about the company.

Bangladesh’s stock market was closed for several days in December 2010 and January, 2011, after crashes that resulted in losses for millions of small investors as the benchmark Dhaka Stock Exchange General index (DGEN) fell nearly 1,800 points.

In response to the petition, the Dhaka metropolitan sessions court asked Mr Khaled, also the Chairman of state-owned Bangladesh Krishi Bank, and other members of the probe body to submit their explanations by June 12 after a personal appearance.

The four-member high-powered committee submitted the report to the Government earlier this month after a 10-week investigation into the debacle on the Bangladesh bourse, indicating heavy manipulation of the stock market was responsible.

Several newspapers earlier carried detailed reports on the findings of the committee, while Mr Khaled at that time said: “All the institutions that have anything to do with the stock market were responsible for the debacle.”

He added that their investigations also found that around 150 million takas was siphoned out of the country during the stock crash, where the BD-Thai also had a major stake.

BD-Thai is one of the largest manufacturers of anodised and powder coated aluminium profiles, doors, windows, and curtain walls and allied items in Bangladesh. Shares of the company were trading at 875 takas, down 3.07 per cent, on the Dhaka Stock Exchange on Sunday.

BD-Thai, in its civil suit and legal notice, quoted Mr Khaled’s comments to the media saying that evidence was found that Zem Global, a United States stock company, in collusion with Bangladesh Thai Aluminium, had laundered or siphoned off money earned illegally from the stock market.

The company alleged that his comments were “untrue, derogatory, confusing and his remarks damaged the company’s social and financial standing”.

A former Bangladesh Bank Deputy Governor and currently the Chairman of state-run Krishi Bank, Mr Khaled said bad decisions of the SEC and the central bank were also largely responsible for the debacle.

The Finance Minister, Mr A.M.A. Muhith, earlier said the inquiry report would be made public, but initially, no names of individuals would be published as the probe committee “did not get enough time to go into the details’’.

The Minister, however, acknowledged that the committee named some people after getting “some indications” about their role in creating the crisis.

The stock market, however, shrugged off the findings of the investigation report, with the main Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) closing the week on a high note more than one per cent higher.

But experts and analysts demanded exposure of the “culprits” and justice, saying the Government must take specific action against the people who manipulated the market.

thehindubusinessline.com