Yunus Centre refutes PM's accusations

Yunus Centre yesterday responded to some statements Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina made while addressing a reception accorded to her by expatriate Bangladeshis at Stockholm City Conference Centre on June 15.

A Yunus Centre release stated that the PM made a number of accusations and allegations against Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus, including playing a role in “stopping the World Bank fund for Padma Bridge project, instigating Hilary Clinton to phone her after losing his managing director post from Grameen Bank, stealing money from Grameen Bank and not paying taxes”. 

The Yunus Centre comes up with its responses, men tioning that it had responded to such “false” accusations and allegations also made in the past.

The Daily Star publishes abridged texts of the Yunus Centre responses to some of the questions raised by the prime minister. We took both the PM's statements and Yunus Centre responses from the release.

PM: “Now things are becoming clear gradually -- it is being clear how much money he (Yunus) didn't pay as tax.”

YC: Professor Yunus, as stated on many occasions before, does not have any outstanding tax claims or pending tax payments. We have repeated on a number of occasions that Professor Yunus pays all of his taxes fully and in due time. All relevant information regarding his earnings and taxes are in the possession of the tax authorities. To say Professor Yunus is a tax dodger is false.

PM: “Dr Yunus removed Grameen Bank's money, poor people's money while working as MD and made 40/50 companies in his own name.”

YC: This is a very shocking accusation. It is difficult to believe that Professor Yunus transferred all these money from Grameen Bank over all these years, and that the Central Bank with all its annual inspections and audits and many more monitoring visits could never detect it. 

PM: Professor Yunus owns 40/50 companies.

YC: Professor Yunus does not own any company anywhere in the world. He does not even own any share in any company anywhere in the world. To establish that Professor Yunus has stolen money from Grameen Bank to set up his personally owned companies will require evidence. The Honourable PM does not appear to care to provide any evidence whatsoever.

PM: “I gave Grameen Phone business to him. It was in our agreement that profits from the phone will go to the poor through Grameen Bank. Not even that happened. He embezzled the money for himself.”

YC: Again no evidence is provided, no embezzlement case ever initiated against Professor Yunus. But the accusations continue. Telecom license was never given to Professor Yunus or any individual.  So the question of Professor Yunus selling it off does not arise. Professor Yunus could not sell something which he never owned. Grameen Bank never owned any share of GrameenPhone either. So the question of selling the Grameen Bank's share does not arise. 

PM: “Why had he been so greedy for the position of MD even after becoming a Nobel Laureate? He violated the rules of GB and stayed as MD for almost 10 years. He was told to leave the post. Our finance minister and Gowher Rizvi himself told him. He did not pay heed and filed a case instead.”

YC: Professor Yunus was never “greedy” to hold on to the managing director's position. Every time he offered to step down, the board members insisted that he stays on. In 1990, the government's ownership in Grameen Bank was reduced from 60% to 25%, and the ownership of the borrowers was raised from 40% to 75%. Under the amended ordinance, the authority of appointing the managing director was vested to the board of directors with prior approval from Bangladesh Bank. All the control of the bank was given to the board. No government control was kept except for the appointment of three members of the board out of 13, including the chairman. Grameen Bank was not required to follow government service rules. Bangladesh Bank was given the authority to approve the appointment of the managing director made by bank's board, as in other privately owned banks. Bangladesh Bank approved the appointment of Professor Yunus. Professor Yunus did not violate any rule of Grameen Bank.

PM: "He [Yunus] made Hillary Clinton to call me on the issue."

YC: Professor Yunus did not “make” Hillary Clinton call the Honourable PM. If Hillary Clinton did in fact call the Honourable PM she may have done so of her own accord. Many other world leaders expressed their concern about the fate of Grameen Bank by making phone calls, writing letters, making joint statements in globally admired newspapers, sending personal emissaries, and through one on one discussion with the PM.  Hillary Clinton, if she did call the prime minister, would not have been the only one.

PM: "He [Yunus] put his investments abroad, sent money abroad. How did he give that money to the Clinton Foundation?  Now all these are being questioned."

YC: Professor Yunus does not send money from Bangladesh to outside world for investments. He brings his foreign earnings home. He brought big investors like Telenor to Bangladesh. He brought big name companies for joint ventures in Bangladesh such as Intel Corporation, Danone, Veolia, Uniqlo, BASF, Euglena and other companies.

There was no allegation anywhere that Professor Yunus has personally donated money to the Clinton Foundation or to Hillary Clinton's campaign fund. These are fabricated by some local papers. 

President of Grameen America, Vidar Jorgensen, a wealthy US business man, paid $20,000 per year as fee to attend Clinton Foundation event called Clinton Global Initiative. He believed CGI is a good place to meet potential donors for his organisation Grameen America which required continuous flow of funds to reach out to more poor women with microcredit. By the end of this year Grameen America will have given out a total of one billion dollars as micro loans to poor women in 12 US cities.

Professor Yunus or Yunus-inspired NGOs never donated any money to Clinton Global Initiative. He always attended CGI as a speaker, and was not required to pay any fee.

PM: "World Bank was stopped from giving money to Padma Bridge Project, and accused us of corruption. There is no doubt that their hands were behind all this.”

YC:  Professor Yunus did not “create corruption allegations” against the government. He has always supported the Padma Bridge project as the bridge would benefit millions of people of Bangladesh.

At the end of the release, the Yunus Centre also noted that a recent letter from the chairman of US Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Grassley, to US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, is being presented in the press as a senate judiciary committee investigation. “This is not correct,” it clarified.

“Such a letter does not constitute an investigation which is a serious process. This has to be debated in the committee which has to come up with a resolution to start the process of investigation and define what they will be investigating. Usually it is a time consuming process. Senator Grassley's letter does not trigger the process,” Yunus Centre said.

"However, if the Senate decided to begin an investigation, Yunus Centre would welcome it. Through such investigation the truth would emerge. Professor Yunus has become a target of false propaganda. When truth emerges, there will be no further place for falsehood."