Partner Company of BPC: Tk 100cr swindled

Two top officials of the partner company of state-run Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation have allegedly embezzled over Tk 100 crore by transferring the money to three companies they have shares in.

The findings of an ongoing investigation suggest that the actual amount embezzled from Standard Asiatic Oil Company Ltd (SAOCL) could be much higher, officials say.

Mainuddin Ahmed and Mohammed Shahed, director and general manager of SAOCL, allegedly embezzled the money between 2011 and 2018.

Mainuddin represents the shareholders who own 50 percent of SAOCL. BPC owns the other half represented by Shahed.

They allegedly transferred the funds to the accounts of Asiatic Oil Company Ltd, Pyramid Exim Ltd, and Goodwin Power Ltd.

Shahed, despite being on government payroll, is a director at Goodwin Power while Mainuddin has shares in Pyramid Exim and Asiatic Oil Company Ltd.

BPC Chairman Shamsur Rahman told The Daily Star that officials have been able to thoroughly review transactions of only the last two years.

“We are yet to get records of previous six years as the SAOCL authorities are not properly cooperating,” he said, adding that his office had decided to write to the ministry recommending punitive measures against the officials responsible.

The Anti-Corruption Commission started an investigation into allegations of irregularities at SAOCL in January this year.

The ACC found that Tk 43 crore was transferred illegally from an SAOCL account to Pyramid Exim between 2015 and 2018 and another Tk 14 crore to Goodwin Power between 2015 and 2016.

Of the three private companies, Asiatic Oil Company was established before 1971, Pyramid Exim in August 2014, and Goodwin Power in May 2015.

ACC officials said Tk 43 crore of SAOCL was transferred via 121 cheques to four accounts of Pyramid Exim and over Tk 14 crore was withdrawn from SAOCL account with 17 cheques and deposited to the account of Goodwin.

Investigators of the anti-graft watchdog Mahamudur Rahman and SM Sahidur Rahman submitted a report in February and seized passports of the suspects. The ACC on March 12 issued letters to every land and airport to restrict the two officials from leaving the country.

ACC Deputy Director Mahamudur Rahman told The Daily Star that Tk 57 crore was transferred to the accounts of two private companies and there were at least 15 other allegations against Mainuddin Ahmed and Mohammed Shahed.

“We have found evidence of manipulating tenders and irregularities in sales,” Mahamudur said, adding that the exact amount money embezzled would be known when the investigation was complete.

According to records, Sajib Das Gupta, a former sales officer at SAOCL, deposited Tk 14 crore to an account of Goodwin Power Ltd.

Sajib told The Daily Star that his GM Mohammed Shahed gave him the cheques and told him to deposit them in Goodwin’s account.

BPC sources said 18 customers were asked by Shahed to deposit Tk 46.28 crore in an account of Asiatic Oil Company Ltd after buying 1,099 consignments of furnace oil from SAOCL between 2011 and 2012.

One of the customers, MD Mozammel, chairman of Padma LPG Ltd, told The Daily Star that he bought furnace oil worth Tk 13 crore from SAOCL, but deposited the money to an account of Asiatic Oil Company Ltd.

“I deposited the money as per the direction of GM Shahed,” he said.

Contacted, Mishu Minhaz, director of Asiatic Oil Company Ltd, claimed that he knew nothing about the allegations.

When The Daily Star tried to set an appointment with Shahed, his lawyer Shuvagata Chowdhury said his client would not talk to reporters and claimed that several suspended SAOCL officials were raising false allegations against his client.

Asked why his client, being on government payroll, became the director of a private company, he said Shahed was not aware that he was named as a director at the private company.

“After we came to know it, we sent a letter to the Joint Stock Company to drop his name as a director of Goodwin Power Ltd,” he said.

SAOCL Director Moinuddin Ahmed did not answer his phone nor reply to texts sent by these correspondents.

Acknowledging the allegations of corruption, SAOCL Chairman Abu Monsur said: “If the allegations are found to be true, the BPC will take action.”

ABM Golam Ahad, deputy director of commercial audit directorate in Chattogram, said his department had not been able to audit SAOCL since 2013 because the company was not cooperating.

“We write to them every year requesting a schedule for the audit. They reply every time that they will get back to us, but they never do,” he added.

A correspondent of this paper went to the office address of Pyramid Exim Ltd in Mohammadpur of Dhaka but found only a house there.

No official at the Goodwin Power Ltd office in Dhanmondi agreed to speak to this paper.