Nagad applies to release its frozen Tk 786 crore shares; ACC to oppose at Monday hearing

Mobile financial service provider Nagad Limited has applied to the court to release its frozen shares worth Tk 786 crore 39 lakh 284. A hearing on the application is scheduled for Monday at the Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge's Court.

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), however, will oppose the application to unfreeze the shares. ACC Assistant Director (Court) Aminul Islam told Prothom Alo that Nagad has applied to the court for the release of the frozen shares and that a hearing is set for Monday. The ACC will fight so that Nagad's frozen shares are not released, he said.

Earlier, on September 10, acting on an ACC application, Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge Md Shahjahan Kabir ordered the freezing of shares worth Tk 786 crore 39 lakh 284 held in the names of accused-linked individuals and institutions, including Nagad Limited's former managing director Tanveer Ahmed Mishuk. The court issued the order on an application by ACC Assistant Director and inquiry officer Mohammad Shahjahan Miraj.

The ACC application said an inquiry is under way against Tanveer Ahmed Mishuk and other concerned persons over allegations of siphoning government money through unauthorised distributors, transferring shares in favour of non-resident investors without bringing in foreign currency through legal channels, repaying foreign loans with zero-coupon bond money, laundering money abroad and acquiring assets beyond known sources of income.

The ACC inquiry initially found that from April 1, 2021 to December 2024, unused government allowance money distributed through Nagad was transferred through software fraud into 24,159 fake entrepreneur wallets.

The money was later siphoned off through the bank accounts of 648 fake DSOs and 34 unauthorised distributors, according to the ACC application.

The ACC application said evidence of embezzlement of Tk 1,706 crore 38 lakh 54 thousand 229 has initially been found through this process. The embezzled money was moved through various bank accounts and used to buy 16 crore 84 lakh 34 thousand 127 shares of Third Wave Technologies Limited. Nagad's former name was Third Wave Technologies Limited.

The ACC further alleges that the persons concerned are trying to sell or transfer the shares, and that there is a risk the money could be laundered abroad if the shares are sold. The inquiry also found no information that the foreign institutions and nationals concerned brought money from abroad through legal channels to buy the shares.

The ACC application had said that if the shares were transferred, handed over or sold before the inquiry ends, there is a risk of financial loss to the state. For this reason, freezing the shares was necessary under the Money Laundering Prevention Act and ACC rules. Now the court is set to hear on Monday Nagad's application to release those frozen shares.