At least six tax officials, including the then tax commissioner, were involved in extending undue favour to two sons of controversial businessman Mohammed Saiful Alam to legalise undisclosed money worth Tk 500 crore, an investigation by the tax intelligence has found.

In the process, S Alam's sons Ashraful Alam and Asadul Alam were allowed to evade Tk 75 crore in taxes in 2020-21, according to the report, prepared by Mohammad Abdur Rakib, tax commissioner of income tax intelligence and investigation unit.

Following the report on October 15, the finance ministry has suspended three officials, while further investigations into the matter are underway.

The suspended officials are Joint Taxes Commissioner of Dhaka Taxes Zone-2 AKM Shamsuzzaman; Additional Taxes Commissioner of Chattogram Taxes Appeals Zone Saiful Alam; and Assistant Taxes Commissioner of Chattogram Taxes Zone-2 Aminul Islam, according to their suspension orders seen by The Daily Star.

They were working in Chattogram Taxes Zone-1 in 2020-21 when the incident happened.

The tax intelligence investigation report said the tax officials and some officials of First Security Islami Bank, then controlled by S Alam Group, had "staged a drama" to legalise Tk 500 crore black money.

The National Board of Revenue formed the one-member investigation team on September 20, two days after The Daily Star published a story titled "S Alam Sons: They used fake pay orders even to legalise black money."

Based on the recommendations of the investigation committee, the internal resources department of the finance ministry issued a letter to Bangladesh Bank and the Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate the matter further on October 17.

The investigation report also said the then taxes commissioner Syed Mohammad Abu Daud, chief assistant of taxes circle 22 (Patia) Zamir Ahmed, and taxes inspector Lokman Hossain cannot avoid responsibility.

Several officials of First Security Islami Bank were involved in issuing fake pay orders and manipulating online bank records to legalise the money, the report added.

Citing documents and tax officials, The Daily Star report said that the two S Alam sons were allowed to legalise Tk 500 crore of previously undisclosed money by paying Tk 50 crore, when the actual charge should have been Tk 125 crore. Initially, they also issued two invalid pay orders worth Tk 25 crore each, although that was later rectified.

Shamsuzzaman did not pick up the phone. Instead, a woman identifying herself as his wife told The Daily Star yesterday, "My husband cannot talk now, he is sick."

Saiful Alam denied any involvement, saying although he was in charge of inspecting the range as a substitute at the time, he was absent from work as he had Covid-19.

Aminul Islam said he was innocent and that he was punished unfairly.

Syed Mohammad Abu Daud also insisted on his innocence.

"I had no involvement in the incident. I did not sign any document, and no one told me about the matter then," he said.