Asia Insurance fined for embezzling Tk 2.27cr

The Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU), a wing of the country's central bank responsible for investigating money laundering, has fined Asia Insurance Limited and its officials for embezzling Tk 2.27 crore of policy premium through forgery, according to official documents.

The misappropriation by the non-life insurer involved TVS Auto Bangladesh Limited, which collected initial insurance policy papers for opening over two dozen letters of credit (LCs) in 2021 and 2022 to import goods.

Two-wheeler manufacturer TVS Auto says it imported the goods against all the 25 LCs and completed subsequent procedures.

However, according to the insurer, TVS Auto cancelled the LCs and requested refunds of the LC cover notes, totalling Tk 2.27 crore, through emails. And Asia Insurance refunded the amount minus value-added tax accordingly.

But Asia's client TVS Auto completely opposes the account.

"Neither we cancelled any LCs nor we received any refund of the insurance premium," TVS Auto said in a formal letter to the insurer recently.

Meanwhile, a recent BFIU assessment flagged that Asia Insurance did not scrutinise the refund claim before giving away the money.

On condition of anonymity, a BFIU official confirmed with The Daily Star that Asia Insurance and the officials were fined for forgery and irregularities. The official, however, did not disclose the amount of the fine.

Besides, the BFIU notified the Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority, Anti-Corruption Commission and Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate on the matter.

Contacted, Asia Insurance Deputy Managing Director (DMD) Md Rafiqul Islam defended their action by saying they gave Tk 2.27 crore to their agents and showed it as a "refund" in the balance sheet.

Islam told The Daily Star that agents who bring business to the company cannot be given extra commission than the determined market rates. That is why they showed the extra payments to the agent in the refund column.

For this, the Asia Insurance DMD said the BFIU fined two senior officials of their company Tk 5 lakh.

Biplob Kumar Roy, chief executive officer of TVS Auto Bangladesh, said they did not receive any letter from the BFIU.

"Yet I have talked to Asia Insurance and asked them why our name is coming up in their irregularity. We did not do anything wrong," he added.

Roy also said the insurance company could not give any satisfactory answer.

"Under no circumstances will we accept any hindrance to our goodwill and would expect that being your reputed client, you will also ensure the same," TVS Auto said in a formal letter to Asia Insurance.

Asia Insurance began operations in the year 2000. With 22 branches, the company carries out its insurance activities all over the country, according to the company website.