Four e-com kingpins transact Tk 100b

Over Tk 100 billion has been transacted in the bank accounts of four big ecommerce platforms -- Evaly, Eorange, Qcoom and Boom Boom -- between 2019 and 2021, and three allegedly committed money laundering.

The findings come in a report the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) submitted Thursday to the High Court in compliance with its earlier order.

The financial intelligence report came after completion of their investigation into 17 out of 50 ecommerce entities against which allegations of embezzlement and defrauding customers were raised.

Among these companies, Evaly Limited transacted total Tk 62.96 billion, Eorange Tk 21.48 billion, Qcoom Ltd transacted Tk 20.92 billion and Boom Boom transacted Tk 580 million during this period, BFIU says in the report.

The intelligence unit has found money-laundering allegations against three of the ecommerce platforms-Boom Boom Limited, Qcoom Limited and Sirajganj Shop.

The government agency also sent its "findings along with the documents to the criminal investigation department (CID) of the police for conducing further investigation into the allegations and to take necessary legal action against the three ecommerce firms", also reads the 672-page compliance report.

BFIU's lawyer, Shamim Ahmed Khaled, Thursday placed the report before the HC bench of Justice Md Mozibur Rahman Miah and Justice Khizir Hayat during hearing three separate writ petitions filed as public-interest litigation in connection with this issue.

BFIU said in the report that "there is reasonable cause for suspecting that the money which was generated from fraudulence was deposited into 30 bank accounts of Qcoom Limited, and therefore, their transactions were stayed on October 13, 2021 under the Money Laundering Prevention Act, 2012 following the request from the CID".

The agency also says in the report that it stayed transactions of four accounts of Boom Boom Limited and seven accounts of Sirajganj Shop on September 14, 2021 on similar grounds.

Meanwhile, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) also submitted a separate compliance report to the HC through Deputy Attorney-General Bepul Bagmar, saying that it (NBR) has fined 13 online business organizations Tk 1.39 billion for not paying taxes and VAT to the government.

The NBR collected Tk 330 million and Tk 120 million as revenues from 196 registered online platforms in 2020-2021 fiscal years and in 2021-22 fiscal year respectively, according to the NBR's compliance report.

After receiving the reports, the HC bench ordered the BFIU to submit a complete compliance report on this issue before this court and fixed May 22 for hearing and delivering further order.

Mohammad Shishir Manir filed a petition on September 23 on behalf of 33 consumers of the ecommerce platform 'e-orange.shop'. Two other Supreme Court lawyers, Md Anwarul Islam and Barrister Pallob Kabir M Humaun, filed two other writ petitions as public-interest litigation seeking some other directions over the e-commerce scams.