The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has arrested five members of a hundi syndicate who laundered Tk 400 crore by using mobile financial services (MFS) in the last three months.
The arrestees are Nasim Ahmed, 62, Fazle Rabbi Sumon, 32, Kamruzzaman, 33, Zahir Uddin, 37 and Khairul Islam, 34.
“We have arrested five people who used to smuggle crores of taka out of the country through MFS. This syndicate laundered around Tk 400 crore to Dubai from January to March this year.” CID Chief Mohammad Ali Mia told a press briefing at its headquarters in the capital on Thursday.
He said they (the syndicate) procures agent SIMs from Tasmia Associates, a Bkash distribution house in Chandgaon, Chattogram. Then, these SIMs are connected to the laptop/computer through a modem. When the connection is made, the control of the connected SIM through ‘Zet Robotic Apps’ goes to the hands of the app controllers, who control the operation of this digital hundi from the Dubai office.
Shahidul Islam alias Mamun, primary owner of this hundi syndicate, has been living in Dubai since 2020. The arrested five people, including Mamun, controls ‘Zet Robotic Apps’. These apps are customised and controlled by Malaysian software developers. Then, even if the agent SIMs are in Bangladesh, they can control it from Dubai. They can send money through cash-in to different numbers in Bangladesh from Dubai.
During this hundi operation, they collect foreign currency from expatriate Bangladeshis through their agents. This cycle knows to which number or bank account the money will be sent.
Then, this circle sent money to the numbers of expatriates’ relatives using apps from agent SIMs collected from Bangladesh. This cycle has used 150 agent SIMs of Tasmia Associates.
“A total of six mobiles, 18 SIM cards, one laptop, six modems and Tk 28.50 lakh were seized from the possession of those arrested,” said the CID chief.